The Spires of Altihex
by amidoh
Summary: Starscream, a scientist from Kaon, never wanted a research partner. Now that he's found Skyfire, however, it's hard to let go. But Cybertron is changing, and it's getting difficult to keep up. Slash.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **All names you recognise are property of Hasbro/Takara, and I am merely toying with them for my own amusement.

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 1**

From the first moment he laid eyes on the huge white shuttle, Starscream _hated_ him. He watched as the out-dated administrator showed the new researcher around the complex, and already loathed the very sight of him.

"And there's easy access to all the reactors, though some of them require special permission from the seniors."

"What are the restrictions?" Asked the white mech, looking around in casual interest. Frag, even his _voice_ was annoying! He spoke in the calm, slightly slow way of those who have limitless patience and subconsciously want others to be aware of that fact. Starscream _despised_ that.

"Almost anything involving cybertroid or its alloys, highly volatile explosives, that sort of thing. There's a reference list posted around, if you're unsure just give it a check."

Starscream watched in disgust as the new robot looked around approvingly at the facility. He wanted the tall white mech – and he was fragging_ huge_, towering over the administrator (who was almost a head taller than Starscream himself) – to melt into a pile of slag. There was only one mech currently at the facility who still needed a laboratory partner. Starscream preferred to work alone anyway.

_Die_, he chanted in his head as the white scientist noticed him for the first time._ Die, die, die_!

"A seeker? Here?" Questioned the shuttle as soon as he laid optics on Starscream's lithe form, a puzzled smile flashing over his light face, and Starscream snarled at the term. "I thought they had all been stationed down in Kaon, have there been terrorist attacks here too?"

"Oh." The senior scientist turned to follow the newcomer's gaze, and his face twisted in a gross expression of distaste. "That's Starscream. He's not here for military ends, he's an... _anomaly_. I'm sorry to say that he's your new lab partner - protocol requires our researchers to work in pairs in case of accident, and he's the only one here at the moment who has no workmate..."

Perhaps Starscream would have cared to feel offence at the casual contempt that dripped from his superior's voice, had he not expected such. Baring his teeth, he made no effort to show that he had even heard the remarks, spoken as though he wasn't even there, though he swore that he would extract a painful revenge for each of them.

"Do you want me to show you back to the main hall?" The senior researcher had lost interest in his disagreeable student, turning back to the newcomer, who had seemed quite shocked at the dislike apparent when Starscream had been introduced.

Surprisingly, the great white head shook in decline. "No, I would rather stay and get to know my new partner. If we're going to be working together..."

"You sure?" Only disbelief showed at the shuttle's resolute nod, the administrator staring a moment before shrugging. "Suit yourself. You can remember your way around?"

"Hum, Nova Cronum is certainly a lot larger than the labs in Altihex, but I think I remember most of it. I shall ask someone if I get lost."

"Very well. See you later. Inform one of the maintenance or administration drones if anything untoward arises."

The senior robot strode briskly away, leaving Starscream scowling in distrust at his new research partner, who was studying him in apparent fascination.

"So you're Starscream, are you?" Asked the tall white scientist kindly, the obvious dislike on his companion's grey face not seeming to faze him in the slightest. "Pleased to meet you. My designation is Skyfire, I specialise in xenology and developmental energo-chemics."

"I don't care."

Skyfire was lost for words at Starscream's curt and dismissive response; he'd probably been expecting his partner to be welcoming and to greet him with open arms. Ha, Starscream crowed in his own mind, he was going to make his unwanted labmate feel just how little he was needed. The seeker turned his back as the larger mech struggled for anything to breach the awkward silence.

"So, uh, we'll be working together quite a lot, I take it... what's your specialisation?" He pressed, though the degree of confidence had somewhat faded from his voice at the rude reply he had received for his honest and friendly note of greeting.

"Drop dead." Snarled the smaller robot, his rich tenor voice grating slightly in his anger as he flashed an ired, hateful glare at his companion but sparing nothing else. Truthfully, he'd always been curious about xenology... but he was willing to deny his interest if it meant that he didn't have to pay any more attention to this big white moron.

"Come now!" Skyfire rose his own voice, righteously indignant and somewhat offended at the hostility he was being received with. "There's no reason for that! We're going to have to work together, at least do me the decency of a civil conversation!"

Starscream whirled on his foe. "I don't need you! I don't need a partner, so leave me alone!"

For a klik or two, the only sound was that of Skyfire's vents expelling air as he tried to reign his fraying temper back under control and calm himself. Under the impression that he had passed his emotions on well enough, and, in a twisted way, proud that he had shattered the supposed 'limitless patience' in less than a breem, Starscream turned away again, indicating that he desired the conversation (if it could even be called that) to be finished.

No such luck. Skyfire spoke again, again pleasant and collected, speaking as one might to an angry sparkling, an almost falsely jovial tone that set the tetrajet's teeth on edge. "Well, I... I haven't heard of a seeker in academia before, what made you decide not to be a warrior like your fellows?"

He had changed the conversation slightly, as though hoping that would ease Starscream's irritation, but if he had hoped that this question would persuade Starscream to be more talkative and friendly, he was sorely mistaken.

"Shut up!" Screamed the smaller robot, turning with a enraged, almost crazed expression on his dark face. It was an expression so intense that the larger mech started back in surprise. "Don't you _ever_ call me a seeker, you hear me!?"

Skyfire was stunned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend -"

"Just shut the frag up and leave me alone!" Huffed the tetrajet, making as though to disappear down the corridor, though he was stilled by Skyfire's voice, which was heavy in resignation and, at the same time, somewhat sheepish.

"One moment – before you disappear, could you direct me back to the main conference room? I'm a little lost..."

Starscream had the fleeting urge to point the big white idiot in the wrong direction, but he stilled his hand, knowing that, in order to retain his place in the Nova Cronum research facility, he would have to accept the shuttle as his work partner. He'd already strained their relationship enough with his first impression, there was nothing to be gained but expulsion from the labs if he had no partner.

Mutely, he jabbed a blue finger down the corridor, stalking off before Skyfire could thank him. Primus, even thinking about working with someone else made him feel ill. The thought that, after all his hard work and effort to secure a place here, after all the challenges and hardships he had been forced to overcome, that someone else would be assigned as his partner, to steal his theses, to take credit for his ideas...

It repulsed him.

Even if safety procedures required robots to work in pairs, or sometimes even trios if the project was deemed particularly hazardous, the grey jet did not have to like it. Still riling in dislike at his new labmate, he swore to himself that he would make the shuttle's life so hard and friendless it would force him to resign. Then he could go back to working on his own, as he wanted.

From the first conversation, Starscream _hated_ the white shuttle. Working with him was going to be the epitome of hell.

O

"Good morning."

To his disgust, it was the big white shuttle who greeted him on his way to one of the fusion reactors some orns later. Starscream stared at him blankly before turning away without deigning to respond. He should have expected it. Skyfire was the only one dumb enough to even try speaking to him – every other mech at the Nova Cronum facility had learned to keep away from him by now.

"I'm afraid we got off on the wrong foot when we met." Continued Skyfire amiably, falling into step with his smaller partner. "I apologise, this is my first time out of Altihex, and I spent most of my time there on solo short-distance xenological surveys. I'm not really used to meeting new people."

"Whatever." Grunted the smaller mech, speeding his step slightly. To his upset, Skyifre easily matched his pace.

"Where are you headed?"

"Fusion reactor." Was the curt answer. Starscream spared a sideways glare at his lab partner and saw only a pleasant patience displayed on the light face.

"Oh? I don't remember you mentioning what you specialise in..."

"That's because I didn't tell you. Leave me _alone_."

Skyfire gave up his futile attempts to start a relatively civil conversation with his abrasive and offensive new laboratory partner, understanding why the senior scientist who had shown him around had been so apologetic about landing the tetrajet as his workmate.

"Look," he sighed, tone measured carefully, "I don't know why you've already decided you don't want me here, but the protocol dictates that researchers work in pairs. That's what I was told. So you're going to have to cooperate and accept me as your partner whether you want to or not. It will be much easier for both of us if you could be a little less rude. We do have to work together."

Starscream ignored him and kept walking. Unhappy at being brushed off so curtly, Skyfire reached out and caught the tetrajet's shoulder.

The reaction was distinctive and unexpected; Starscream hissed and pulled his shoulder from the gentle grip with a irritable glare. "Don't touch me!"

"Starscream -"

"No! Shut up!" Starscream snapped, flailing with one hand to dissuade his larger companion from reaching out to him again. "I don't want you here, telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing! I don't need a partner, so go the slag _away_!"

"Telling you – no, Starscream, partners work together, as a _team_..." The white shuttle shook his head as Starscream slammed into one of the few restricted reactor chambers, upset at his endless inabilty to make the antisocial tetrajet see the situation from his point of view.

As he watched Starscream, who was in high bad-temper, tampering with a various number of carefully divided and labelled liquids in flasks on the work surface, the shuttle realised which room they had just entered, and curiosity overtook his patient mind again.

"Starscream," he muttered quietly, not wanting to provoke the tetrajet to snap at him again but somehow feeling it was inevitable, "don't you need special permission to use these reactors?"

"I got permission, and I can do what I want in here as long as _you_," here Starscream sneered; he had obviously debated this clause in his permission long and hard, but to no avail, "watch over me. Ha!"

Skyfire carefully ignored the blatant contempt. "What are you researching?"

"It's my thesis, not yours." Came the answering waspish growl. Again, Skyfire shook his head in exasperation.

"I'm curious, and I can help, if you would just tell me what you're trying to achieve."

"I don't _need_ your help!"

"Then at least tell me what's in those flasks." Skyfire tried, his patience with this insufferable seeker wearing painfully thin.

"Raw energon in various stages of refinement and catalysts of my own choosing. Now shut up." Without another word, the lithe scientist began to carefully measure out volumes of viscous neon red-pink liquid – pure, unrefined energon, riddled and toxic with impurities.

Interest piqued, Skyfire moved closer to examine what Starscream was doing, watching as the seeker alternated between his measurements and scribbling incomprehensible notes on a small datapad that had certainly seen better days.

Unable to understand his partner's shorthand, and reluctant to ask the surly, disagreeable mech to explain it to him, Skyfire gave up trying to make sense of the recorded data and instead watched Starscream work, trying to ascertain what his aim was without speaking to him.

For a war machine, the grey jet had extraordinary precision when it came to reaching the exact volume he wanted. At irregular intervals, he would mutter to himself – complex strings of elemental abbreviations and hypothesising most possible reactions from a given starting point at an impressive cognitive rate. Skyfire was quietly surprised, having (probably quite arrogantly, in retrospect) assumed that a being programmed to be a soldier would be unable to cope with even the most simple elements of chemical theory.

The beakers on the work surface were all filled with what seemed to be liquid compounds. The two at the far right were obviously energon; the vivid shades of luminous hot pink in one and neon, optic-jarring violet in the other were all the evidence needed to draw that conclusion. Most of the others were not labelled, or had hurried writing in Starscream's illegible handwriting. Quite the strangest, though, was a misshapen lump of what seemed to be, from the density, rock, hidden under a cloth shroud in the centre of the work surface.

He chanced another glance at the datapad. Among the spiky, messy Cybertronic characters were a series of formulae; NaCy3COH3C, 6CyH, 3NaCy2... the list went on. Some he recognised as being parts of the molecular structures of, in turn, impure energon, refined energon, cybertrates...

Most compounds with cybertroid element in shared one distinct quality – a dangerous instability, and the likelihood to either chemically bond with or detonate any other materials they came into contact with. This volatile attribute was partly what made energon such an efficient source of power, especially in Transformer biochemistry.

Starscream was handling these explosives with a casual disdain and careless lack of worry. He hadn't even thought to don necessary apex armour to protect vulnerable circuitry. He hadn't even worn a visor to protect his fragile optics.

And the shrouded lump in the middle of the desk, which Skyfire had thought to be just a rock, turned out most shocking and concerning of all. Starscream whipped the covering cloth away, revealing a sizeable fragment of pure, crystallised energon. Rough edges still shone, gleaming, to show how recently it had been hewn from the mines in the distant corners of Cybertron.

It was fresh. And that meant it was unstable.

"Starscream," he said, voice low, only meaning to alert the seeker to the dangers of what he was attempting, though certainly having no intention to hinder any research.

"Shut up!" Starscream jerked and Skyfire flinched automatically; the cylindrical measuring apparatus held gingerly in the blue hand had come worryingly close to splashing its contents over the energon crystal.

"Careful!" The white shuttled hissed. Starscream turned to glower at him, and there was such anger, such _hatred _in the red-eyed gaze that Skyfire backed down.

Without another word, without deigning to honour his labmate with such, Starscream turned back to his work, ignoring that his partner was even in the room with him, though he could still feel the piercing azure eyes on his back, boring right through him. The sensation set his wings on edge with the desire to turn around and kill. Another indelible part of his programming, to bristle at the thought of being so exposed...

Skyfire began to speak again, and Starscream, who had been so caught up in his mental processes, jerked in fright again, this time splashing a small amount of thick reddish liquid on the table, where it sizzled and began to dissolve the metallic surface before bursting into a small but lively orange flame.

"_Shut the frag up_!" He screeched, whirling on the tall shuttle, slamming the flask of compound down on the work surface with a force that matched his anger, not noticing Skyfire's automatic wince. The white mech was backing away from the terrible aura of fierce rage that radiated from the tetrajet. "How many times do I have to tell you!?"

"No, Starscream, the liquid -" Skyfire tried, holding his hands up hopelessly even as he was analysing the fire (which had already burned itself out). The easy dissolving of the metal, that was down to a cybertrate compound, and the bright, distinctive orange of the flame? That_ had_ to be sodium.

Sodium cybertrate. _Not_ good. He started towards the table, to try and clear away the leaked chemical before it became a safety hazard, but he was met by the barrel of a laser cannon as Starscream raised his arm. Skyfire stopped dead; he had forgotten that the smaller scientist not only had inbuilt weapons but had been designed and programmed to _use_ them.

"You stay away from my thesis! I don't want you stealing the credit for my ideas, I've worked too hard for this!" Ranted the smaller mech, waving his hands emphatically, the snarling contempt on his dark face almost unbelievably strong. "I don't need you, why won't you frag off!?

"_Listen_!" Tried the taller robot desperately, disarmingly holding his hands where his antisocial partner could see them; the spillage on the desk was seeping steadily closer to the energon crystal. But Starscream would not be reasoned with.

"I don't need anyone, I work fine on my own! _I should kill you right now_!"

"Starscream! Your crystal!" Shouted the white shuttle, and, finally, it seemed to get through the obstinate, stubborn tetrajet's thick-plated head. Starscream turned as Skyfire started towards the table again, seeing the imminent calamity and trying to prevent it. The cybertrate touched the edge of the solidified energon, absorbing into the crystal matrices. Starscream reached out for it in a flurried panic.

White filled his vision. A mixture of yells and an oddly deafening silence filled his audios.

The room exploded.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 2**

At first there was just silence, blackness, numbness. At first there was nothing but awareness, a consciousness, a... a _peace_ so convincing that it seemed as though everything from meeting his insufferable partner right up to the disaster had been but a bad dream. A nightmare now over. No input from optic sensors, audio sensors, touch receptors... nothing. Just a disorientating, swirling mess of memories that faded so fast it was hard to work out whether they had been of dreams or reality.

Starscream awoke with a whimper at the fiery agony assaulting his left side, bringing him crashing unpleasantly back to full cranial activity. The entirety of his off-side was alive with burning neural endings, lances of unbearable pain. Involuntarily, he tried to flinch away but found both the arm and the leg unresponsive.

Red optics onlined weakly – or, more accurately, one optic onlined with a dim glow. The other, that on the left side of his face, had shattered, pierced through by a sliver of splintered metal.

Systems scan revealed that most of his left side, up to about midway across his shoulder and thigh, was caught, crushed under debris and twisted molten metal from the ceiling, which the blast had caused to fall through.

His face burned, partially paralysed in a grotesque expression of agony; one side of it had caught the majority of the spilled harmful chemicals as he was blown backwards. Even without raising fingers to explore the wounds, he could feel the droplets of corrosive compounds eating away at the thin, pliable epidermal layers of his jaw and cheek, could feel the horrendous scrapes at the side of his mouth where the majority of the chemical had splashed. It had already eaten through the soft metal there, and was attacking his glossa and the joints of his jaw...

"Starscream?" Faintly he could hear a voice above him, barely audible above the static, a concerned voice. If he poured all his concentration into focussing his one good eye on the mass of spinning white rising over his vision, he could just about make out the outline of his workmate Skyfire, hovering over him. Speaking. The jet couldn't really hear the words, but he clung to the tones. Stay conscious, he berated himself from somewhere in his mind. Stay alert.

"Starscream, can you hear me?" Primus, the pain was intense. It felt like his exostructure was melting away. "Stay with me, the paramedics are on their way, just stay with me now... Primus above, why didn't you _listen_..."

Heh... Skyfire sounded worried. Starscream couldn't understand it – why should the big shuttle be worried for his safety, when he had been nothing short of cruel and scathing to his new workmate? Probably Skyfire was worried he would get the blame if Starscream died. Yes... that must be it...

"Wh'sss't?" The seeker managed in an attempt to speak, though the resulting sound was more like a hiss than any coherent word.

"Careful – don't try to speak. Just try to stay awake, can you do that for me?" Hm, thinking about it, the shuttle's voice was somewhat strained. Starscream tried to take offence at the almost-patronising tone. He couldn't do it. Truthfully, he was just thankful for the words. They gave him something to cling to, to anchor himself to alertness.

Stasis. The promise was so sweet, one of ease and pain-relief... but he had to stay awake. He knew enough about medicine to be sure of that. Had to stay conscious.

What had happened? One moment shouting at Skyfire, the next? It was hard to make sense of, and it was impossible to remember. The energon cyrstal had detonated on contact with the sodium cybertrate, of course, and then...?

He must have been knocked offline. How long for? Probably not for any great length of time, if the medics and the senior staff had not arrived yet.

... Primus, how degrading, for him to have made such a rookie mistake...

Frag, it was all his partner's fault! He'd never had such a catastrophic accident when working alone! Sure, there'd been a melted computer terminal here and there, or rude messages scrawled in acid over the datapad screens of anyone who had upset him, but he'd never blown himself up...

"H-how..." He tried, shocked at the state of his voice as hurt cut off his question prematurely. Where before it had been light and rich in tenor, now it grated and scraped, high as though scratching the very emulator it emanated from.

"Hush now, don't try to speak." There was a touch on the uninjured side of his dark grey face. He raised his good hand to swat it away irritably, hating the contact. Skyfire probably thought it was helping, the big white fool. Vision clearing more with each passing klik, he could see that the shuttle was not without damage of his own; blue cockpit shattered, waist cracked and sparking... "Your vocaliser's damaged. Slag it all, Starscream, if only you'd _listened _to me!"

_Don't blame this on me,_ Starscream wanted to say, but his damaged voice would not let him. _It's not my fault._ He knew that wasn't true. He wanted to blame Skyfire; after all, if the shuttle hadn't distracted him... but there was no denying that the crime of negligence was his alone, and that was all the administrative staff would need to expel him from the facility for good. He knew they all hated him. He hated them too.

Not believing his lab partner's explanation for his scratchy voice for a moment, Starscream moved his hand to his throat. His blue fingers closed over a shard of energon crystal, blown into a sharp missile by the detonation, which had lodged in his neck and, from the state of his voice, pierced his vocaliser. He growled in frustration and instantly regretted it when stabs of pain grated through his neck.

His arm fell back again as footsteps approached – three mechs, maybe four, it was hard to tell. Skyfire disappeared from his limited field of vision so abruptly that he was, for a brief moment, disoriented, with the horrible feeling of falling despite lying supine on the ground.

Voices echoed, but he couldn't easily hear the words; they were drowned out by the high-pitched squeal of a laser scalpel as the paramedics began to cut him free from the trapping metal.

By now, the sensory overload in his crushed body had offlined most of his neural nets, leaving his left side completely numb but for an occasional distant throbbing, irregular and unpredictable, as though to remind him that his injured limbs were even still attached to him.

His cerebral processor refused to compute, and he fell into a vegetative, unresponsive state, unaware of eventually being bundled onto a transport stretcher by the medics and hurried to the surgical bay.

O

Research facilities on Cybertron, in a uniform agreement on safety standards, almost all had medical bays in case of accident; small explosions or spills of corrosive material were common enough, and every mech was recommended an overhaul every few mega-cycles to check over vital circuitry for signs of decay.

The surgery at Nova Cronum was _huge_ compared to Altihex. In Altihex, there was a room little larger than one of the dormitories, which was operated and maintained by two interchangeable surly medics, both of whom despised anyone who ever needed their attention. What with the returning explorers often needing worn circuits replaced, this was frequent, and, for minor injuries, most of the students at the facility avoided the place entirely.

Nova Cronum, however, housed the largest pool of scientific resources on Cybertron. Formed as a factory of dubious intentions by the morally ambiguous Nova Prime, and once run by the notorious Jhiaxus, there was not much in academia that did not have some relation to the place. Aside from xenology and anthropology, _everything _was based in the Cronum labs; from energo-chemics, theoretical sciences and medicine to theology and philosophy, which barely even counted as sciences, all of it was carried out in towering, sky-scraping buildings around the Nova Cronum central complex.

Of course, such a concentration of mechanoids meant a concentration of injuries, which needed to be treated quickly and efficiently; most of the chemicals that were tampered with, especially by the theoretical scientists, were highly toxic to Transformer biosystems and had to be treated quickly to prevent permanent damage to the spark or cerebral cortex. Thus, the Cronum surgery was huge and had effective treatments for almost any conceivable malady. And, with so many aspiring medics _studying_ at the affiliated academy, it was never hard to find someone with time to play doctor.

Skyfire sighed at his wandering mind and turned his attention back to Starscream as the smaller researcher's repaired optics glowed briefly, signifying his regain of consciousness.

In all honesty, considering the extent of the seeker's injuries, the medics had done very well indeed in such a short time. By maximising the efficiency of Starscream's auto-repair system, which had reconnected most of his circuits by itself, they had given themselves time to work on his mutilated face, his crushed body, his speared optic, the careful process of removing the live energon shard from his throat.

All they had to do now was replace the vocaliser, and the only reason they had not done _that_ was because they did not have the necessary components to hand.

And as for Skyfire's own injuries? Compared to the tetrajet, he had barely been damaged at all. His cockpit had not been hard to repair, and his waist did not even bear a scar.

Starscream groaned in his transition to wakefulness, and Skyfire, despite himself, was concerned; it was hard not to be. His labmate may be rude and antisocial, and not at all easy to get along with, but Skyfire was not a cruel mech in his spark, and the memory of Starscream trapped beneath the fallen ceiling, parts of his body melting away, was so vivid in his recall banks...

When he turned back, under a klik later, to face the berth Starscream had been lain on, the jet was already sitting upright, examining his reconstructed limbs with a critical optic.

"How long -" he started, his voice still high and scratchy and hoarse. In a rare show of weakness, a blue hand flew to his throat as red eyes widened in shock. "My – my voice? They can't fix it?"

"Of course they can. They've just sent to the Manufactory for a new vocal emulator, that's all." Skyfire's blue optics twitched. "Why didn't you listen to me? Primus above, I know you don't like me for whatever reason, but all of this could have been prevented."

A snarl. A dismissive hand gesture. "You don't belong in my lab, so I don't have to pay attention to anything you say."

"Even when I'm trying to help?"

Though the question was mild enough, Starscream grimaced as though struck and scowled sulkily at his own knees. For precious moments he was silent, only managing to sullenly mutter: "I don't need any help."

Shaking his head, Skyfire did not bother to think of an answer, expecting to be shot down in flames as soon as he opened his mouth. When he had been told that he would be working with a partner in the Cronum facility... he had not expected this.

Once, some time ago, the white shuttle had been told that he tended to over-think things. He agreed with that. But then, it was hard not to think so much about his enigmatic, hostile labmate. Starscream was so cynical, so... so _mistrustful_, and he seemed to be trying to wage a war against the world. As one so used to his associates being friendly and welcoming, Skyfire had to wonder why.

The door of the medical bay slid open, and both occupants looked up at it expectantly. However, rather than one of the doctors bearing a new, undamaged vocal emulator for Starscream, the regal and commanding figure standing, somewhat silhouetted, stepped forward over the threshold to reveal himself as one of three most senior robots in the laboratory complex. Though smaller than Skyfire, his height was impressive and imposing; broad-shouldered, spiked metal and a fearsome orange glare. He inspired respect and demanded obedience.

Even Starscream cowed; he knew, or at least he thought he knew, what was coming.

With a nod of greeting at Skyfire, the Dean strode imperiously to the berth that the smaller scientist had lain recovering on. Starscream bared his teeth, but even he did not dare antagonise such an important mech, not when he was in so much trouble all ready.

"Starscream." When the Dean spoke, his voice was deep and spark-tugging. He was a mech of few words, but those he spoke to tended to understand what he wanted of them very quickly. "Explain."

The seeker stared tensely at his knees, mumbling an almost-guilty response. "I spilled sodium cybertrate and it leaked onto an energon crystal."

"Why was it not cleaned away instantly?"

Starscream could not answer. 'I was too busy arguing with my lab partner' did nothing to alleviate his guilt.

"Well?" Pressed the Dean impatiently, staring impassively down at the wretched scientist.

"I dunno."

"This is not good enough. Starscream, I have had enough of your negligence and your disobedience." The grey head raised to light the Dean with a blank red-eyed stare. It looked as though Starscream would open his mouth to protest, but there was nothing he could say. "I have given you all the chances I am willing to allow."

Skyfire, who had been considering leaving, was suddenly that much more alert, turning his head slightly to listen to the reprimands.

"Reactor 5 is no longer operational, it will need to be replaced, as will the floor of the room above. You are very fortunate that there was no one in that particular lab, or your carelessness could have led to a termination. I cannot allow someone who does not pay respect to my safety protocol to stay in this research complex. Do you understand what I am saying, Starscream?"

"Yes." Replied the unfortunate jet bluntly, fisting his blue hands compulsively in his lap. He'd known this was going to happen. Primus damn it, it was all that stupid shuttle's fault...!

His dark head snapped up when he heard his tall white lab partner, quietly and unobtrusively, draw attention onto himself. "Sir, if I may – Starscream was not at fault for the explosion, that was my responsibility, he knocked me clear and caught the majority of the blast..."

"Skyfire?" And the ineffable Dean sounded surprised, though emotion had quickly gone from his tone. He dealt with the unexpected confession quickly and professionally. "I had expected more of you. Your reference from Altihex was outstanding. Very well, Starscream, I rebuke your punishment, but I give you both a warning – one more slip-up like this and you're both out. Do I make myself clear?"

Skyfire nodded while Starscream mumbled inaudibly, and the Dean, apparently satisfied with their apology, and with more pressing matters to attend to, strode from the surgery without another word or backward glance, leaving the two partners alone.

His injuries not troubling him, and in the knowledge that Starscream could take care of himself, Skyfire made to leave.

"Hey, where are _you_ going?" Grumbled the seeker, pressing himself up from the berth to a standing position, testing his rebuilt leg.

"Leaving you alone." Replied Skyfire without bothering to turn around, his voice carefully blank. "I thought that was what you wanted."

Starscream scowled at him, not appreciating what he construed as a jibe, and took two unsteady steps towards him before, seemingly, suddenly remembering how to work his legs and walk.

"What the frag was that about, then? You just_ had_ to play the hero, didn't you? What, is there something wrong with your programming that makes you want to _gloriously_ rescue everyone?"

Though he had not expected a word of thanks for taking the fall, Skyfire had at least thought he would escape such open hostility, and he was taken aback that Starscream seemed even angrier than he had been before. "Excuse me?" He demanded, offended at not only the lack of gratitude but the dislike in Starscream's tone. "Don't tell me you _wanted_ to be excluded from the facility!"

"I would rather have been kicked out than have to live with _you_ smugly telling me I owe you a favour." Hissed the jet with venom. Skyfire sighed and shook his head sadly.

"I didn't do it for you, there's no point. You're rude and unkind and I have no desire to help you in any way. But if you get kicked out, then _I'm_ without a lab partner, and that restricts me if I want to use the reactors. I have no interest in calling you to return the favour, because as far as I'm concerned, it wasn't one. And now, goodbye."

He left the medical bay without looking back. Though his patience was impressive, even he could see that trying to make the relationship between him and his partner work was a waste of time. Starscream had no desire to be befriended, and there was no helping one who did not want to be helped.

So it came as quite a surprise when he heard light footsteps behind him, matching his, and turned to see Starscream following him.

"Go back to the surgery," he muttered, the volume dissipating from his voice at the tense and almost reluctant expression on the red-eyed face, "or they won't be able to replace your vocaliser."

"I don't care." Rasped the jet, gritting his teeth and staring resolutely off to the left, like any sulky sparkling. "It doesn't hurt, it can stay like this. Whatever, a voice doesn't make a difference."

Skyfire shrugged and turned to carry on back to his own quarters, but he was stilled when a blue hand caught his wrist, stopping him still. Glancing back in confusion at his antisocial partner, he tilted his head. "What do you want?"

For a while, all Starscream could do was to stand there awkwardly in ill-tempered uncertainty. As kliks passed, Skyfire lost patience and tried to pull his wrist away, but for a mech so slender and lithe in build, Starscream was deceptively strong, and the shuttle could not break free of the blue grasp.

"Look." Growled the seeker as he once again found his ability to speak. "I -" He cut himself off, bit at his lip in ill grace and glared off at the floor before tilting his dark head up to meet Skyfire's optics with his own blazing, dripping crimson. Pride was hard to swallow; it left an unpleasant lump in his throat. "Th-thanks, I guess."

Skyfire bit back a smile. Well, it was progress. "You're welcome. You can let go of my arm now."

And Starscream did. "Frag, I still don't like you, but whatever. We've got to work together and that's that, I've come too far to let you hold me back. So just stay out of my way an' I'll stay out of yours. Got it?"

"I understand." The tiniest of smiles escaped Skyfire's control, shining in his sincere blue eyes. "And no more insults?"

"Unless you piss me off." Snarled the jet, turning and stalking away without another word.

With a shrug and a slightly-exasperated shake of his head, though in much better humour than he previously had been, Skyfire continued back to his own quarters. Perhaps there was a hope for their future as workmates after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Note: **I don't pretend to be any great chemist (in fact, chemistry was my worst of the sciences at GCSE level :D) so I can't guarantee that the scientific mumbo-jumbo makes any logical sense at all. If it's wrong, just... just blame it on being giant robot science. D:

Also, I apologise for how late this is, but I have been ill most of this week. Nothing serious, but it has affected my writing.

-

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 3**

The science facility at Nova Cronum was quite apart from other Cybertronian academies in that, though it marketed itself as a school, there were no lectures, nor seminars, nor even any formal exchanging of information. Instead, it operated as a collection of resources for aspiring scholars to use in their own independent studies.

Because of this, the concept of laboratory partners served a different purpose than in any other facility. Even the Cronum sister-academies, where medicine and psychology were taught to students, partners were chosen of those mechs who were interested in achieving a similar main goal, to teach the values of co-operation and teamwork.

At the main academy, however, laboratory partners were chosen almost at random; they were not expected, nor required, to work together, merely to watch over each other in the anticipation of meltdowns or accidents. Of course, it helped if the workmates, having to spend a lot of time in the same room, were on speaking terms with each other, but they generally worked on their own. Only rarely did partners present a thesis together.

Starscream had been without a partner for a reason. He had been paired with two mechs prior to Skyfire's arrival at the facility, and neither relationship had ended well. The first had requested a new workmate almost immediately because of Starscream's attitude. The second had tried to brave it out, to make an effort, but, in the end, Starscream had chased him away so violently that he had suffered a minor cerebral glitch and had to be reformatted.

After that, no one made the mistake of approaching the tetrajet. Until, of course, Skyfire.

The white shuttle had come across this information in the form of rumours during his off-cycles, when he was relaxing in the recreational tavern adjacent to the main complex. Students and staff from all the Cronum complexes went there to relax, to drink, occasionally to gamble... And, accordingly, it was a veritable energon-mine of gossip.

A newcomer to the social scene, Skyfire had introduced himself, and, being as most already knew of the arrangements within the facility, he had been immediately asked, not without sympathy, if he was Starscream's new partner. He'd replied in the positive, and had had several different mechs simultaneously buy him a drink and wish him the best of luck for taming the wild jet.

He'd declined their charity, stoically pushed away the drinks they gave him and rose to leave without another word. As far as he could tell, they had all already, in their minds, decided that he wouldn't make it, and they were offering friendship as compensation for that.

He didn't need that, and he knew Starscream couldn't be so terrible.

At first, Skyfire had been loathe and unwilling to believe that Starscream could have caused another mech to have a nervous breakdown – the jet was rude and abrasive, but surely not _that_ bad – but the more he heard, the corroborating stories even from those of different academies, and the more time he spent with the seeker, the more he had to admit that they were probably true.

Starscream was a notoriety. He hadn't even been in Nova Cronum for long, but he was already infamous. The majority didn't even know him by name, but the seeker model was distinctive, and to see one outside of Kaon was unusual enough. The stories spread like wildfire...

Perversely, Skyfire found, Starscream did not seem to mind that others shied away from him in the corridors, or associated him with even the most terrible of events at the facility, even if he had been nowhere near. Instead, he seemed more upset when he overheard them speaking with ignorance to his name. While 'I heard that Starscream caused the nuclear meltdown in M block' merely caused a smirk to pass over the grey face, hearing 'you know what, that seeker just lost another lab partner" brought him into a near rage. His optics would narrow, his expression would darken, and, unless whoever was speaking took initiative to quickly flee, they would quickly find themselves at the receiving end of a high-pitched shriek of insults.

Contrary to all his expectations, however, working with Starscream was not as grating as he had anticipated. Once over the first suspicions and dislike, Starscream tended to busy himself obsessively in his own work, barely having time to even speak with his large partner. Not that Skyfire minded; he had enough to his own hypotheses to work towards.

However, though he was not the most social of beings, even he liked to talk sometimes, and he was friendly by nature. The routine of seeing Starscream when he entered a reactor chamber, nodding at him wordlessly and then working in silence until they both left was tiring and somewhat depressing, and he sought to remedy that – though he was completely unsure of how to start a conversation, when most of the questions he asked were received with either a distracted grunt or total silence.

The stalemate was broken at last, over a deca-cycle after Starscream had grudgingly thanked Skyfire for saving his hide, and, to the white shuttle's surprise, the seeker was the one to approach him.

"I'm stuck." Muttered the little tetrajet grudgingly, as though he was embarrassed over that fact and hated turning for help.

"What with?" Questioned Skyfire, taken by surprise.

"My thesis, glitch-head."

"I realised that," sighed the white shuttle in exasperation, knowing that Starscream was probably only feigning ignorance to goad him but unable to coax himself to take offence, "I meant, what's the problem?"

The shuttle was flapped into silence as Starscream waved a datapad under his nose, as though he could have read it that fast. When he went to reach for it, the jet pulled it away.

"It's the Cy3 in NaCy3CyOH3C. I want them stable and I'm out of ideas."

"Hm?" Skyfire shook his head. "What are you trying to achieve?" Again, he sighed when he saw the suspicious glare Starscream threw him at what he, at least, had thought to be an innocent question. "Come _on_, Starscream! I can't help you unless you tell me what you want as an end result."

The red-eyed jet stared hard at Skyfire for several kliks longer than was necessary before snarling and shrugging in bad-tempered acquiescence. "Fine, whatever. I'm working on a way to improve the efficiency of energon refineries. The molecular structure of energon and the structure of the potential catalysts that could be utilised so much more effectively than the slagspawns working the plants realise suggests that, in theory, it should be possible, but..."

Skyfire stared, interested and, despite himself, impressed. "It's the CyOH3 that's the main impurity, isn't it? As far as I know, the standard energon available is based around NaCy3C, with ions added depending on the grade."

"That's _wrong_ and you're an idiot." Retorted the seeker with passion in his voice, speaking faster and more openly as he was dragged into the subject he loved even while waving his hand dismissively at his workmate.

"What? I'm pretty sure that refined energon is NaCy3C."

The tetrajet nodded as he handed Skyfire his datapad, though not without reproach. "That's true, but it's moronic. We are not carbon-based lifeforms. We don't need the C at all, it contributes _nothing_ to our systems and is merely expelled as waste from our vents. The CyOH3 would be far more beneficial to us, but _that_ compound of energon is ridiculously unstable. On the other hand, if I could just find something to form a molecular bond with it, the Cy3 could be neutralised enough to take away the risk while still providing all the power potential to our systems."

Finishing the outline of his research, Starscream watched, somewhat uncomfortably, as Skyfire checked through his notes on the datapad, and, for one who hated company as much as he did, he felt compelled to keep talking – just to dispel the awkward embarrassment clutching his processors. "Uh.. I'm getting pretty close, I've eliminated sodium and its compounds as a possibility, but, uh..."

"Starscream," gasped the white shuttle as he read the scrawled notes and hastily scribbled ideas, cutting across the smaller mech, "this is amazing! If this works, the energon crisis that all the politicians are fretting over could be averted completely! Have you _told_ anyone about this?"

"Yeah, the senior academic board know 'cause I had to tell them to get my placement here," muttered the seeker, and, though his voice was quiet and uncomfortable, he was positively glowing under the praise.

"But no one else?" Skyfire pressed, holding the small information pad back to its owner.

"Of course not!" Came the snapped, waspish reply as the seeker snatched the proffered pad back, checking over it compulsively as though to see if any of his notes had been altered; it was clear that he still did not trust his lab partner.

"You should." Suggested the shuttle mildly, not bothering to take offence at the meticulous and obsessive cleaning of his datapad that Starscream was doing, knowing after a deca-cycle as the tetrajet's workmate that such an action had been inevitable. "This is big research, you could even get funding from one of the senators if you suggested it to them."

"Funding from a senator!" Spat the jet, turning away in disgust. "Ha! I don't want funding from one of those pompous egotistical fools."

Blue optics widened in surprise; Skyfire had thought that official backing from one of the most famous and _influential_ Cybertronians was any scientist's dream. "But it could really help you -"

"All right," interrupted the seeker, datapad flashing past his labmate's eyes again as he made a theatrical hand gesture, "say I get funding from Senator Ratbat or Senator Decimus or fragging Emirate Xeon or even Sentinel Prime himself, and I finish my research successfully. What then, hum? _I'm_ not the one who presents the thesis. The one who provides the funds gets _that_ honour. Then the glory and the credit will go to him. I've made it this far and I don't need some arrogant slagspawn getting in my way!"

Skyfire stared. He could do little else; Starscream's logic, while making a twisted kind of sense, was not what he had expected at all. Usually, once a scientist had the backing of the rich, he was set for life, chosen first for high-profile developmental projects – it was surely anyone's highest ambition. But Starscream... seemed to prioritise in completely the opposite way.

"It's very important to you, isn't it?" The shuttle asked quietly, tilting his head. "Being noticed?"

Jerking as though struck, Starscream grit his teeth and averted his gaze to stare determinedly at the floor, his awkwardness almost tangible enough to be cut with a laser.

Feeling as though he was finally making progress, Skyfire sighed gently. "Come get a drink with me?" He offered, and Starscream stared at him.

O

Although Nova Cronum was large, with many robots making their homes there, the number of small and nondescript taverns and refill stations that dotted the place was surprisingly few. Mostly, this was because those individuals who sank to sleaze had an easier time of doing so in the slums and scrapheaps of run-down, lawless cities like Kaon and its surrounding neighbourhoods.

As such, though there were scattered bars gathering the city's underworld shady characters, the only real place for any self-respecting academic to have an energon drink with his friends was in the establishment joining on to the main campus.

Skyfire sat at a bench opposite Starscream and watched his smaller companion swirl energon around in its container without drinking it.

He didn't know what he had been thinking when he proposed they get a drink. Starscream was as antisocial as ever, staring sulkily at the purple liquid lapping the sides of the container and not saying a word, closing himself away from Skyfire as he always did – though this time it was somewhat more awkward, as though he was unsure of something.

Quietly, the shuttle sipped at his own drink and then pushed it aside, in no mood to over-energise.

Starscream pushed his drink aside and stared at Skyfire, voice curt as he demanded, "What do you want?"

"I just want to know why you're so hateful." Answered the white shuttle, meeting those red optics fearlessly in the knowledge that Starscream was hesitating. "There's no reason for it. You could be amazing if you stopped chasing everyone away."

"Shut up." Hissed the tetrajet irritably. "You don't know anything!"

"Then explain it to me."

There was nothing but patience in the white robot's voice. Admittedly, it was a resigned and long-suffering patience, but it was not ire or irritation or in any way snappish. Starscream's expression melded into suspicion; he felt that Skyfire was trying to psycho-analyse him, and he despised the idea, but at the same time, his workmate's voice was inviting of trust and sincerity.

"There's no point," he sneered in his self-defence, "you wouldn't get it."

"Try me. I'm far from stupid."

Backed into a verbal corner, and unwilling to cower away, Starscream scowled and spat old oil in his energon as his mind worked for a way out of this. "Then work it out yourself, if you're so clever."

The stalemate dragged on. Simultaneously, both gave up and looked back at their drinks, Skyfire heaving a world-weary sigh.

"I don't understand it," he muttered, admitting defeat. "Your thesis is genius, and if you presented it, I'm _sure_ that you'd have a huge number of lords wanting to fund you. Most scientists would _kill_ for an opportunity like that. You'd be set for life."

"I'm _already_ set for life." Growled Starscream, though the praise had eased his tense limbs; he was relaxing slowly under the admiring words. "All I gotta do is go back to Kaon and I got a permanent post in my squadron. I don't care about that and I don't care about slagging glitch-headed politicians sliming their way over my work."

"What _do_ you care about?"

Starscream didn't answer Skyfire's gentle interrogation, instead narrowing his red optics and glaring at nothing, He didn't have to respond, however, as the white shuttle answered his own question.

"You care about being noticed, right? You want people to know your name?" Skyfire made no claim to being any sort of detective, but that conclusion made sense; Starscream's ire at being referred to as a seeker, his disgust at the thought of a senator taking credit for his research even if he became wealthy and influential...

The little tetrajet turned back to face his labmate and held the gaze easily, coolly. "I'm a scientist and people are going to respect that."

Nonplussed, his azure eyes widening a little, Skyfire voiced his confusion; "Why would they not? Perhaps if you weren't so foul to everyone, they would have an easier time talking to you. Your attitude is bad, you insult everyone you meet and you're horrible to be around. Maybe if you sorted that out, they would accept you quicker?"

That was all it took. Starscream rose with such force that his drink was knocked over, precious energon spilling from the container to seep neon violet over the bench. Red eyes blazing, glaring at the shuttle (who was the same height as the standing jet even while he was still seated), Starscream could not keep his anger from showing on his dark face.

"You hypocrite!" He spat, disgusted. "You don't even realise you're doing it, do you!? Stupid, ignorant, _arrogant_ piece of filth! You preach that _you're_ different, that _you're_ righteous, but you're just the same! I don't have to deal with your blind prejudice!"

Skyfire sat, stunned, as Starscream stormed out of the bar. All eyes were on the retreating tetrajet, and then, as soon as he left, all eyes switched to the white researcher, who did not move, thinking over what had just happened.

"Don't worry," said a voice by his audio, "he's like that to everyone."

"Yeah," agreed another of the nameless patrons of the tavern, "don't worry about it. You're his new lab partner, right? You need another drink?"

Voices drowned each other out, each one offering sympathies, condolences, wishes of good luck and encouragement to not give up taming the hateful seeker. Skyfire did not listen to any of them, feeling they were all wrong somehow but not knowing why, and stared at the door Starscream had disappeared from wordlessly. He'd been so close. What had gone wrong?

Was it that he had called Starscream foul? No, surely not, because he had before and the jet had not been so angry. Was it that he had listed faults? ... perhaps closer, but still unlikely, as, again, he had already told Starscream to his face that he was a horrible person to be around and Starscream had not bitten his head off like that.

Then it must be his innocent, blank questioning of why the jet was not accepted or respected as a scientist... but why would _that_ cause such a violent reaction? A libertarian at heart, Skyfire honestly did not understand the problem with a mech pursuing the subject he loved, and could not see why Starscream should rile at his innocent questioning.

"Excuse me," he started kindly, the injustice of his slighting weighing on his circuits and burning in his throat alongside the barely-there but still-nagging guilt that clenched his core, and his sympathetic but unwanted audience quieted, "could somebody tell me where his quarters are?"

"Who? That seeker? Why would you want to know?" Shot a voice sceptically; he couldn't see who had said it.

"Just tell me please," he pressed, not wanting to explain to these students whose names he did not know and had no intention of learning.

Eventually, after the robots gathered around him had bickered amongst themselves for a klik or two, he was given directions to Starscream's quarters by a stoic transport ground-vehicle. Thanking his informant, Skyfire tidied away the containers of energon that littered the bench, wiped up the liquid that had splashed everywhere in the jet's dramatic ranting and left.

He headed, quickly and silently, towards where he had been told the jet's quarters were, determined that, even if he could not reconcile their strained relationship, he would find out what the frag Starscream's problem really was.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 4**

Some part of Skyfire had expected the door to Starscream's quarters to be just as attention-grabbing and abrasive as the seeker himself, and was guiltily surprised when he saw that it was no more obtrusive than the threshold to his own dormitory.

As he strode the corridors leading to the domestic part of the building complex, the white shuttle had been lost in thought, barely even noticing the busy, bustling scientists passing by him on their business. Predominately, of course, was the nagging question of _why_; why would he want to chase after his lab partner, when he could expect nothing but harsh reprimands and cruel insults? Why should he waste his time trying to reach out to, trying to befriend someone who wanted to remain alone?

And, of course, he was only assuming that Starscream had disappeared to his quarters, when, in reality, he could be _anywhere –_ there could be any number of lonely, secretive hideaways for him to retreat to, and, as Skyfire somehow kept overlooking, the tetrajet _was_ a flier. If he had taken to the skies, well, Primus only knew where he was. So why waste the minimal energy it would take to make the trip to the seeker's room?

Logically, there was no satisfactory answer. Logically, he should back off, lick his wounds as it were, give up, resign himself to going back to coldly greeting Starscream at the start of each orn before working through the cycles in uncomfortable silence. Logic could not help him deal with a being that was as highly-strung as the tetrajet scientist.

Mostly, he was curious as to why Starscream seemed to hate him so intensely – why Starscream seemed to hate _everyone_ so intensely. While he had heard of mechs who were programmed to rebuke all offers of companionship, Skyfire thought that such a mindset in a _seeker_, who were always, without fail or exception that he yet knew of (other than, of course, Starscream), stationed in threes down in Kaon, was counter-productive.

Here he was, now, and he was damned if he was going to turn back. Steeling himself for whatever rude rejection Starscream would doubtless throw, and hoping only that he wasn't about to irreparably worsen matters, he knocked on the dulled silver door with a spotless white fist.

"What do you want!?" screeched a recognisable voice from within, rude and peevish. At least Starscream was in his room, though from the sounds of it he was well past irritation.

"It's me," said the shuttle calmly. Instinctively, he jerked his head back at the sound of a clang on the door – it sounded as though Starscream had thrown something at it.

The shriek from the other side of the reinforced metal was high enough and loud enough to make his audio receptors burn minimally from the frequency. "Go _away_!"

"Starscream, I just want to _talk_ –"

"I don't want you here, I don't want to talk to you! Leave me alone!"

Skyfire heaved a long-suffering sigh from his vents, laying one hand against the door as he summoned up the courage. For the good of a healthy, constructive working relationship, this apparently irrational rift had to be repaired. "Look... I know you've decided you don't like me for whatever reason, but I... I think I offended you back in the tavern, and I want to apologise for that."

The door slid open partially, revealing a sliver of dark gunmetal cheek and one fiery red optic that stared suspiciously up at Skyfire. The shuttle had the presence of mind to curl his fingers around the side of the door, hoping he could use his strength to keep it open.

"Well?" snapped Starscream through the gap. "Let's hear this apology, then!"

"I'm sorry."

"Good, now _get out_."

The tetrajet moved to slam the door shut, and, thinking quickly to avoid having his fingers crushed, Skyfire yanked it back and planted his foot in the way of its path to closure. Howling in indignation and frustration when he could not close the threshold to his safe-house, Starscream glared up at his taller research partner, a wild and unnervingly dangerous glint in his optics.

"Hold on just a moment," Skyfire demanded calmly above the tetrajet's loud complaints. "At least tell me what I've done wrong, so I know not to do it again. I'm not a mind-reader, and you're not exactly being helpful."

The cool blue gaze was met by a burning red glare, but there was nothing Starscream could do; no matter how hard he tried to force the door closed, Skyfire refused to move his foot.

"You're so blind. You're so naïve!" snarled the grey-faced seeker, disappearing from the door so abruptly that Skyfire, taken by surprise, had no time to stop exerting his strength in trying to force it wider with one hand, and the shuttle almost sprawled to the side in an ungainly heap. The door flew open and Skyfire adjusted himself in time to see Starscream recline bad-temperedly on his berth... but at least the jet was letting him in.

"In what way?" He questioned somewhat shakily, vainly trying to stomp down the embarrassment that the little tetrajet, so deceptively strong for his size and build, had almost sent him toppling over.

"You don't even know when you're doing it, do you?" Starscream was drawling the words now, disgust written over his dark face. "You have no idea!"

"Doing _what_?" Skyfire pressed, his patience once again wearing thin (Starscream always seemed to bring out the worst side of him) as he took a step into the tetrajet's quarters, waiting to be ordered out immediately. When no rejection came, he closed the door behind him quietly and loitered near it, still respecting the seeker's privacy and ready to leave if it became uncomfortable.

Now that he had a chance to look around the seeker's quarters, Skyfire took the opportunity – and almost gasped aloud; the small private quarters were a haven of destruction. The personal computer screen was smashed and fragments of it still glimmered between buttons on the keyboard and the warped remains of a metal desk were hurled up near the door. By far the worst, however, were the walls, where, here and there, deep erratic lines had been gouged out.

It looked like laser fire. It looked like the scene of a struggle.

Starscream sneered, either not noticing or just ignoring Skyfire's badly-hidden shock. "All right, then, let's try it another way. When you look at me, what do you see?"

"I see an intelligent but socially-inept scientist."

The sneer melted rapidly into a scowl at the answer. Starscream shook his head and glowered at a point far to the left of Skyfire. "No, you're speaking as someone who's talked to me before. Now try it like you haven't met me."

"I see a jet-transformer who has an ugly frown on his face and a bad attitude to match it." Skyfire sighed again. "Where are you going with this?"

"No!" All of a sudden, Starscream made a violent gesture with one arm, the inbuilt small weapon on which whirred ominously. "You're still doing it _wrong_!"

"I don't –" He meant to say that he didn't understand but broke off prematurely. In all honesty, Starscream's weapons scared him; with little experience of mechs not native to Altihex, Skyfire's knowledge of the military and those with inbuilt-weapon systems was limited indeed. The whirring of the weapon... was that it charging to fire? Would Starscream use it on him?

"The first time you saw me! You said it then! What's so hard about saying it now!?" Vengeful ire flashed through those piercing red optics, and Skyfire tried to remember.

"I asked about you, I think... referred to you as a seeker, didn't I? I asked the mech showing me around about you because I was surprised, and he said you were an anomaly."

That seemed to be the key. Finally, it seemed that Skyfire was making progress. At the term 'seeker', Starscream stiffened up, the look on his expressive thin face turning resentful and bitter.

"That's right." His high, grating voice was quiet but there was an underlying anger and possibly even hurt hidden within it. "You asked what I was doing outside of Kaon."

"I was surprised!" protested the shuttle, holding his hands before him in a gesture of innocence. "I'd never heard of a seeker outside of Kaon before! I certainly didn't expect to see one at Nova Cronum, as a _scientist_. Seekers don't –"

The large shuttle fell into a stunned silence as the heat of a laser beam passed by his head; Starscream had fired at him, and the jet looked livid – he had thrown himself from the berth to his feet, ready and seemingly itching to fight.

"Stop it! Stop saying that _word_! You see, you're just as blind as everyone else!" The tetrajet's broken voice had risen to an infuriated howl as he vented at his lab partner. "You don't even see me as a real person! What, so just because I'm a seeker means I have to stay in Kaon? As a mindless drone of a warrior? Am I not _allowed_ to be a scientist?"

"I didn't say that!" Skyfire realised his mistake even as he desperately tried to placate his raging partner. In retrospect... yes, he had been a fool, hadn't he? On the other hand... it was only natural to assume that a seeker would serve a purely military end, as they were built -- and programmed -- to be efficient aerial soldiers, fighting the deterioration in the Cybertron badlands.

"You may as well have said it!" Shrieked the fiery-tempered jet, discharging the second of his twin weapons into the wall by the other side of Skyfire's head, causing the shuttle to flinch reflexively. There was a sizzle as the blast melted away part of the metal; the acrid smell was almost overpowering in the close proximity, and the shuttle had to cut power to his olfactory sensors.

For a dragging klik that lasted far longer than it needed, both scientists stared at each other, Starscream trembling in a barely-controlled rage and Skyfire frozen still with shock that his partner, while unpleasant and somewhat arrogant, could be violent enough to shoot at him.

With another scowl at Skyfire, Starscream turned his back and sat back on the berth. "Leave me alone."

"Starscream, I..." Skyfire sighed yet again, turning his azure gaze to the floor in a guilty shame. "I'm sorry. I was wrong. It was foolish of me to stereotype you."

"Whatever." Shrugged the tetrajet, who seemed to have burned his anger out and was now staring at nothing in a sulky resignation. "Everyone does, it's not like it's a hard thing to do. I'm the only seeker outside of Kaon at this time, and we're all built to kill and follow orders." A sneer passed over his gunmetal features. "I hate it! I hate it, when people just assume that I'm _stupid_ and _violent_ and only good for a military end!"

"I..."

"You shut up! Don't you preach at me, you hypocrite!" Starscream pointed a blue finger accusingly at the shuttle. "You were surprised to see me at Nova Cronum! You thought I _couldn't_ be a scientist, and why? Just because I'm a tetrajet! Just because of my alt-mode! You judged me as easily as anyone else; you have no right to say anything."

Skyfire stood uncomfortably as Starscream stiffened and turned away, mulling over the jet's words... which did ring true, after all. He had judged, even if he hadn't meant to.

The situation... was awkward at best; the white shuttle could see, far too easily, why such assumptions would be made about anyone bearing the seeker model. After all, the reason that the tetrajets had been so mass-produced was for the efficiency of their build as fighters in the air, and as soldiers good for following orders. And to make the assumption of violence... after the stories so frequently told about Kaon, well...

Starscream was unusual among the seekers, then, in that he had an ambition past that which he was programmed to be. This, in itself, meant that he was, on some fundamental level, rejecting his programming while, at the same time, fighting a deep-rooted mindset of superiority and casual arrogance that resided amongst the majority of Cybertronian population when they thought of the 'seekers'. Skyfire knew how easy it was to fall into that trap of assumption. He'd just done it himself, without even realising.

... and that reasoning fit perfectly with Starscream's attitude in the deca-cycle since being introduced to Skyfire; the way he balked at being referred to as a seeker but was fine if people called him by name while spreading their gossip, no matter how bad it was... that he was adamant _he_, and not a senator, would present his thesis even if it meant rejecting official funding...

He sought attention, desperately. He sought praise, and associated it with individuality. He sought recognition for _anything_ past what was expected of him as a seeker, even if it was notoriety or infamy rather than from any good means. He sought...

"I'll show them," the jet was growling, glowering at the wall without really seeing it, "I'll show them all, I'll make them see me as Starscream instead of just another seeker, everyone will know who I am! I deserve it, I'm better than that!"

His tone was dismissive and final, the conversation closed.

Skyfire could have left then. Perhaps he should have, now that he had said his piece and learned the reason, or at least one of the reasons, for his disagreeable partner's hateful behaviour to all others. Instead, however, for whatever reasons he could not work out in his own mind, he loitered and did not leave. There was still something of a relationship to repair, if they had to work together. It could not carry on like this.

"May I sit down?" He asked, making the effort to establish familiarity. Starscream shrugged, and Skyfire took that as a good sign, sitting on the berth next to the antisocial seeker. At least he wasn't being pushed away entirely.

"What do you want?" snarled the lithe jet after a very short while of uncomfortable silence. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Taking advantage of the lack of hostility, Skyfire decided to try for a longer and more extended conversation, hopefully that would allow him to better understand the enigmatic jet. "Actually... well, I was wondering about Kaon. What's it like?"

"Kaon?" It was enough to shock Starscream out of his sulk, and he turned to light Skyfire with a suspicious red-eyed glare. "Why do you care? You must have heard the stories about it."

"I think everyone's heard the stories, but I don't know how many of them to believe. Apart from off-world explorations, I've never really set foot outside Altihex before. You lived in Kaon, right?"

"Yes, I was assigned there, of course." Starscream drawled with a derogatory sneer, but at least he seemed to have calmed down. Although he shifted away from Skyfire on the berth a little, he seemed strangely pleased at the chance to speak about his home city.

"Kaon..." he began thoughtfully, an almost feral glint in his eye. "I don't miss it. Quite frankly, it's a slagheap and a hive of illegal activity. The senators there don't do anything about it because each pushes responsibility onto someone else, and the emirate does nothing because he is scared of the criminal underworld there, which is huge and well-networked." Starscream glanced at Skyfire. "Suffice to say, if I wanted you dead in Kaon, then you would be dead within the orn and I would have a perfect alibi."

Skyfire stared.

"The seekers are stationed there to combat the underworld, mostly." Starscream shrugged, more talkative than the shuttle ever remembered him being, perhaps because of the vile nature of the subject. "There's been a lot of terrorism an' bodysnatching an' kidnappings recently." He paused and then tilted his head to the side. "Seekers are always stationed in threes, I bet you heard that before. Know why?"

"N-no..." The stunned answer was all he could give. He had heard of Kaon being a city of ill repute, but this was... this was amazing!

"Partially it's because of all the Empties there, they do anything for energon, so the trines serve the purpose of, say one of us is injured, one can sort out help and secure the area while the other stays with him to prevent his body being dragged away and melted for scrap by those begging Empty scum. That one's mostly a hypothetical scenario, seekers don't get injured easily and especially not by ground-pounders. Mostly it's because of the main profit artery in Kaon." Here Starscream smirked a very worrying expression.

"And that is?" Breathed the shuttle, almost afraid to find out the answer.

"Robot trafficking." Starscream flashed a cruel grin. "The abducting and selling on of a robot, and I don't mean drones. These are robots with free will. Transformers."

"Prostitution?" Skyfire had heard of such practises before, when, in poor areas with little income, mechs sold their bodies to others, engaging in careless sexual acts, sometimes of notorious depravity that one would never suggest to a respected partner.

The look on Starscream's face was as a gambler who had yet to play his trump hand.

"Not prostitution. Pit-fighting."

This took Skyfire by some surprise; while he had heard of prostitution, pit-fighting was an entirely new concept to him. He questioned further even while thinking that he didn't want to know. "What?"

"Pit-fighting. It's a sport that's rife around the Kaon countries. Two robots are made to fight in an arena to audiences, and it's usually to the death." Starscream still had that smirk on his face and, had Skyfire given any thought at all to it, he would have come to the conclusion that the tetrajet was taking pleasure from the horror he felt at hearing such stories.

"Fighting... to death? To_ termination_?" Azure optics widened. "That... surely that's illegal!"

"Of course it's illegal, but who's going to stop it?" A cobalt hand waved in dismissal of Skyfire's naïveté as Starscream's optics flared. "The senators? Ha, no, they benefit from it. I hear there's a good profit to be made being involved in the gambling side of it. Placing bets on which one will win, who will fall, that sort of thing. And the emirate is too much of a coward to get involved."

For a moment, Starscream tilted his head at Skyfire and was silent, studying his taller partner. Then, as the white shuttle was still trying to digest the information about the criminal underworld of Kaon that Starscream had been created to fight, the jet laughed, low and quiet.

"Don't you ever go to Kaon." He warned, regarding Skyfire with critical acclaim, laughter still playing at his voice. "You're too eye-catching. All white and fragging huge. You'd be taken off to the fights in an instant, and not just as unarmed prey like most of them. I reckon you'd do pretty well as a gladiator."

"Don't joke about that." Skyfire stared directly at Starscream, awkward but deadly serious. "I'm no fighter. I'm a scientist. I could never take a life."

Starscream scowled and turned his head away, and, if Skyfire had thought to read his silence, he would have understood. _Don't look down on me for what I was created to do_, the tetrajet was saying through his body language.

When nothing more was said even when an uncomfortable breem had passed, Skyfire stood and took his leave, though there was no response from the jet to his quiet goodbye as he closed the dormitory door behind him and set off down the corridor, running the information he had gathered through his mind.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 5**

Despite learning more about Starscream than he had anticipated during his impromptu visit to the smaller flier's private quarters, Skyfire still talked to the jet relatively little. On the other hand, the silence that hung over the laboratory or reactor they were sharing no longer carried a cold, weighty air; instead of the awkwardness, it was just a silence, a lack of words.

It was not that either of the scientists went out of his way to avoid speaking to his partner, but rather that circumstance distracted their attentions. Starscream was still working hard, vainly trying to overcome the hypothetical wall he'd run in to with his project, and Skyfire had work of his own to be getting along with.

On those occasions that Starscream did speak with Skyfire, the white shuttle noticed a steady and gradual change in the jet's attitude towards him. Whereas before, the little seeker would hold himself as though poised to leave, and deliver scathing insults that _hurt_, he tended to be a lot more relaxed around his partner now, to use insults more frequently but with far less venom. Rather, the way he said them could almost be called affectionate – or at least, as affectionate as anyone of Starscream's attitude could become.

At some subconscious level, Skyfire had to admit to himself that he was still somewhat afraid of the seeker. That Starscream had apparently had no qualms shooting at his taller companion in a violent rage was worrying enough. That he was, despite all his questing for the contrary and disgust at the lack of progress in having others recognise him as an academic, a seeker programmed to be an efficient machine of death was in itself disconcerting, and, if Skyfire's theory about the scars in the wall of Starscream's quarters was correct, he had the potential to dangerous and uncontrollable rampages.

Despite all this, Starscream was never prone to ultra-violent tendencies while in a public setting, and the worst he would ever do, while in a situation outside of his own quarters, was to lash out half-sparkedly with one hand, slow enough for the target to dodge it if he was so inclined.

Occasionally, Starscream was still enough to grate at Skyfire's temper, but the big shuttle had yet to fully lose control, to raise his voice, to really speak his mind about the tetrajet's impossible attitude, about how Starscream sometimes made him want to let a powerful punch fly straight into grey faceplates...

Skyfire stiffened and shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the thoughts from his meta-processors. This contemplation was all well and good, but it was serving no purpose but to throw Starscream's already-questionable personality into a bad light while only distracting the white shuttle from his own work. But...

It had already been just over half a Cybertronian solar cycle since the coming of the seeker to Nova Cronum, and still Skyfire was never really at ease around him, despite all that he had learned. Every time their viewpoints clashed, he uncovered something deeper and more interesting about the jet's unusual personality, but still he was tentative to call them friends.

Once, when Starscream had shouted at him and then clutched his throat and winced at the screech that had come out where once it would have been a pleasant tenor, Skyfire had questioned why he had not waited for his replacement vocal emulator, or why he did not have it installed now.

Starscream had not answered at first, and then, at last, he had murmured that even if this voice sounded horrible, at least it distinguished him from other seekers. It seemed almost everything he did was with the goal to individuality. Skyfire could not imagine living like that.

With a blue-eyed glance over at his workmate, the larger researcher sighed from his vents.

He'd accepted that Starscream was just as anyone else, though perhaps with slightly more in the way of troubles, a harsher origin, inbuilt weapons and military indoctrinations to skew his temper, but even so, there was still something intriguing about the seeker. Still there was the question of _why_ a social being, like the Kaon tetrajets were rumoured to be, had fled his homeland to pursue an academic lifestyle. Had he just been programmed to be an outcast...?

"What are _you_ staring at!?" Demanded Starscream heatedly, a tad awkwardly, and Skyfire stiffened again, realising that he had not looked away from his partner for almost two full kliks, he had been so distracted by his thought patterns.

"S-sorry," he stammered, embarrassed, as he raised his hands appealingly, "I was lost in my work..."

"Heh, some work," sneered the lithe jet. "No wonder you never get anything useful done. Find something else to stare at, you're fragging me off."

Turning back to his own neat notes, Skyfire stared at them blankly for a long silence.

"Starscream?" He asked suddenly, and the jet raised his dark head, not without reproach. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"You just did." Snapped the seeker, irked. "Stop pussyfooting around and get to the point."

Inclining his head slightly, Skyfire pressed forward with his tentative enquiry, ignoring the waspish and uninviting responses prior. "When I was in your quarters, I saw damage on the –"

"Shut up! That's none of your business!"

The shuttle fell silent as Starscream loudly retorted in a finite tone that did not leave room for further questioning, cutting across him before his own sentence was even finished. Starscream snarled at nothing and then glared fiery-eyed back at his work, and the unspoken feeling in the air became inexplicably colder and more awkward.

Then, unexpectedly, Starscream answered.

"I don't want to kill anyone." He murmured, softly and so quietly that Skyfire had trouble making out whether he had really heard the jet speak at all.

O

A new respect for Starscream was being garnered within Skyfire. After what he had learned concerning the damage to the seeker's quarters, he had even found himself feeling limited amounts of guilt; he had assumed that the little tetrajet was just despicably violent and not at all in control of his temper, but that he had such an honourable reason...

Suffice it to say, Skyfire found himself silently pleading forgiveness for his doubt. He did not seek out his partner to offer a spoken apology, knowing that seeker would be more affronted at the explanation and the offer of such a thing than the crime of thinking him violent and out of control.

Instead, in atonement for both this act of mistrust and his original, though unintentional, crime of assuming Starscream to the seeker stereotype, Skyfire made it his silent goal to try to be more understanding of the Kaonite jet, or, if he could not understand, to at least make an attempt at empathy.

His disgust at the smaller mech's violence, for example, he told himself, was entirely unfounded when one took into account their separate backgrounds. Skyfire only found violence repulsive because he had been manufactured in Iacon and onlined in Altihex as an exploratory scientist. He'd quite forgotten that Starscream had always been intended for a military means, and that a willingness to kill was needed in the deadly underworlds of south Cybertron.

Over the next few orns, he did not see his lab partner at all; with neither of them needing the reactors, the necessity of their working as a pair was null. Skyfire took the opportunity to take a break from his work, which was inconsequential, and have a look around some of the parts of the Cronum facility that were still unknown to him. Even after so much time, he had not fully had a chance to explore.

Compared to Starscream, his own research was not at all important. New to the field of chemical theory, he was spending these passing deca-cycles familiarising himself with the compounds he would be working with; as such, rather than Starscream, who was aiming at a goal, his work was merely experimental, almost casual enough to be called playing.

As such, it was not unusual for him to take a break for an orn and engage in recreational activities. Quite often, this meant that he would depart from the facility and disappear into the confines of space. Once he had been asked about his reasons for doing so, but, he'd explained to the land-transport vehicle that had questioned him, it was not something that a non-flier could ever hope to understand. The freedom of being suspended in the sky with nothing to hold him back could not be understood by one who relied on the ground beneath his wheels.

Other times, rather than taking off into the endless dark blue, he would wander the corridors aimlessly, mentally mapping the expanse of Nova Cronum, which dwarfed his home state of Altihex considerably.

There was nothing strange about the orn he found himself back in the facility tavern except that he had craved a drink, something unusual but not unheard of for him.

Though he was not a social creature, Skyfire tended to find comfort sitting back and watching others going about their busy lives, watching how they interacted, how they would hail each other with friendly insults and boisterous but light punches to exoplating. Perhaps the best place to kick back and relax in such a way was, of course, the facility bar, where all manner of studious mechs gathered to let loose after a hard orn's work, and where Skyfire could imbibe a drink while he thought.

Usually, though he would catch snippets of conversation while watching the world go by, he would ignore it, knowing it was not his business, and not by nature a nosy sort. Only on rare occasions, when something particular to his interests was being discussed, would he make any effort to listen in.

It was sitting at the bar on his own with a small cube of fluorescent purple energon, hearing these snatches of conversation, that the massive shuttle became aware that the subject of nearly all the other students in the room was one and the same.

"It's in just over a deca-cycle," one was saying. Skyfire recognised him, but could not put a name to that face.

"Where is it?" asked another, and Skyfire did not know him at all.

"In the Stellar Galleries in Iacon, of course, when's it ever anywhere else?"

"It was in Altihex one time..."

"That's only because Iacon conference centre was being rebuilt after the quakes. Besides, you haven't heard the most important information about this council yet!"

"And that is...?"

Despite himself, Skyfire inclined his head and leaned closer a little, and when the speaker imparted his information, the white shuttle almost dropped his energon cube.

O

"Not only that," spoke the white shuttle hurriedly as Starscream halted his irritated pacing to listen to him, "but apparently, Sentinel Prime himself is going to be there! He's only been there twice this last vorn, and only once last vorn!"

"So what?"

Somewhat deflated at his partner's dismissive answer, Skyfire let a frown mar his azure gaze. "Starscream? This is the perfect chance to present your thesis, don't you see? The science conference only happens once every solar-cycle, and Sentinel Prime will be there - besides, wouldn't you like to see Iacon? I've heard it's quite astounding."

Upon working out the topic of the excited discussion in the tavern, Skyfire had immediately taken it upon himself to visit Starscream with the news, almost burning with excitement and anticipation as he knocked the door to the jet's quarters. The science conference, in which scientists and students from all across Cybertron were welcome to speak their theories in front of some of the most influential mechs on the planet, only happened once a Cybertronian solar cycle. It was the perfect opportunity for Starscream to gain recognition and respect as an academic.

"I'm not going."

Skyfire stared, certain that he hadn't heard what had just fallen from the seeker's vocaliser.

"... what?" he managed in disbelief, "but Starscream...

"I'm not going!" Repeated the jet, this time with more force, louder and angrier, at the same time flashing an irked red glare at nothing. "I don't want to go."

"But your thesis –"

"You present it! I don't care, you take it to Iacon if you're that torn up over it!"

Abruptly, in the aftermath of his outburst, Starscream turned his back on Skyfire, storming over to his recharge berth and throwing himself onto it, staring hatefully up at the ceiling.

"Starscream, I'm not taking credit for your work," said the white shuttle calmly, following Starscream over and staring at him in no small amount of confusion; he had been sure the jet would leap at the chance, what with the amount of time and effort the smaller mech put in to his attention-seeking. "I don't understand why you don't want to go..."

"There's no point," came the response, and Starscream's voice was dull and listless and defeated, "there's no point me going. I'm a different caste to the rest of you, so you wouldn't understand. A seeker can murder your friend, but he can't give you the solution to your fuel crisis. I'd be laughed off the stage. You don't know what that's like."

"What's this? I thought you were going to make everyone see that you weren't just a seeker?" Skyfire tried, not liking to see Starscream so depressed and unlike himself. "I thought you were going to _make_ them accept you as a scientist? You have to start somewhere..."

"There's no point!" The tetrajet's exclamation almost came out as a hopeless moan. "I may as well go back to Kaon, I'm not the same social class as the science-bots and it was stupid to think I could just get rid of the discrimination, and –"

The words died in Starscream's throat as Skyfire slammed his white hands down onto the berth, a terrible glare on the blue-eyed face.

"Don't you _dare_ give me that." Though the shuttle did not raise his voice, the dripping anger from the quiet statement was enough even to chill Starscream. "Don't you _dare_ talk to me about discrimination when I'm trying my hardest to make up for thinking of you as just a soldier, and don't you even think about giving up, because that's not fair on me! I've been through a lot of slag to stay your partner, Starscream, so don't you treat that like it's nothing. I have no problem with self-pity, but yours is shameless and bottomless to the extent that you just ignore everything that anyone else does for you, and it offends me."

Stunned at the outburst, not having seen Skyfire lose control of his temper quite so much before, Starscream could not even come up with a snide or sarcastic comeback, instead just staring with blank gaze and slack jaw at his taller and more imposing research partner.

"I've sacrificed my good record to keep you in this academy," continued Skyfire, somewhat more restrained now that he had been met with no resistance from the belligerent jet, "don't throw that away just because you don't have the bravery to follow your ambition. If you're not going to the Iacon conference, then slag it, I won't go, there's always next year – but I don't want you to just sulk like a sparkling and throw away everything because of it, understand?"

Burned out, Skyfire straightened and stepped back away from the berth again. He hated losing his temper; though it did not happen often, when it did, it left him tired and listless and empty, no matter how recently he had taken energon.

It was to the shuttle's surprise that Starscream rose from his berth to his full height, which, while impressive for a Transformer of his build, was nothing compared to the taller shuttle. Glaring up at his imposing lab partner, Starscream let waste air thrum from his vents.

"You speak like you know everything," he sneered, dark face contorting into a smirk, red optics glimmering, "but don't you think_ you're _the one being selfish?"

"If you can call it selfish not wanting you to give up on your dreams," this response was accompanied by a shrug; Skyfire was already to see that his outburst had been successful, for Starscream was no longer moping and claiming his efforts to be hopeless and his questing to be in vain. The ambition was rekindled in the deep grey face, and the arrogant smirk hovering over the seeker's mouth was just one of the many tell-tale signs of this fact.

"Whatever," snerked the tetrajet, flexing his shoulders and turning away. Skyfire had the fleeting, unrelated desire to ask him if the sheer amount of kibble in the form of small wings and aileron plating that encumbered his partner's shoulders were at all heavy or uncomfortable, but he held back. Now was not the time.

Feeling that he was no longer wanted intruding in his partner's private quarters, Skyfire turned to leave, but was halted by the scratchy voice assaulting his audio receptors.

"Just a moment," Starscream spoke imperiously, once again acting as though he owned everything now that he was over his doubt and uncertainty, quickly falling back into his characteristic arrogance, "while I have you here, I want the reactor in three orns time, so you better be there."

And Skyfire had to bite down an amused smile at Starscream's dominating air, not forgetting that, just kliks ago, the seeker had almost been cowering at the shuttle's anger. "What if I have other plans?"

"Cancel them. You're going to be in the reactor room. Got it?"

"All right, all right," Skyfire shook his head fondly, knowing better than to take offence at the abrupt commands and dominating tone, holding up his hands in disarming acceptance. "Luckily, I have nothing planned for a few orns yet. Which chamber?"

"Sixteen," replied Starscream airily, "and now you leave."

"Reactor sixteen. All right. See you."

There was only a grunt in response as Skyfire exited Starscream's quarters and closed the door behind him. In a brisk walk, he disappeared to his own private rooms, processors emotionally exhausted after having to deal with the ever-unpredictable tetrajet scientist.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 6**

Starscream's laugh, noticed Skyfire, quite by accident, was considerably more expressive than his face. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that Starscream's _laughs_ were more expressive than his face. He had several, and from each, Skyfire was beginning to be able to accurately gauge his mood.

For whatever reason, probably nothing more than his disdain for others and his wish not to associate with them, Starscream's facial expressions were lacking -- at least in Skyfire's limited observation – and his most common were either snide sneers, self-important smirks or a careful and measured blankness – until, of course, he lost his temper. His laughter gave Skyfire insight.

A cruel snicker for when one of his many enemies had taken a fall, been chewed out by a senior for spilling a corrosive substance over the floor, or been accused of small crimes that Starscream himself had orchestrated in order to see them suffer. A derisive snort for when he found something that was, to him, laughable rather than funny, and this noise usually related to Skyfire's differing attitude when considering anything, from ideas as trivial as alt-modes to ideas as heavy as war. A grating and high-pitched shriek for when he was being particularly vindictive.

And two that Skyfire was sure he was the only one to have heard. One, a _real _laugh when the tetrajet could not help himself, a sound that, though shrill and audio-splitting, was pleasing in its open honesty, and the other rarely heard, a quiet giggle that Skyfire could not quite place; it sounded somewhere between ecstasy and embarrassment, and he had not heard it enough to be able to distinguish.

Only when they were alone together did these latter two ever emanate from the grey-faced jet's vocaliser. Despite himself, the large shuttlebot felt vaguely privileged.

During their times in the reactor chambers, which were becoming far more frequent now it seemed that Starscream was beginning to overcome the block in his progress, Skyfire noticed first that the seeker was talking to him more than previously, and second that his partner's laughter, more often than not, was painful to his audios. He'd almost suggested that Starscream get a vocaliser change, before at the last moment remembering that Starscream's vocal emulator had been damaged in the accident.

"Starscream," he'd said quietly, burningly curious, and Starscream had fixed him with that penetrating red-eyed glare of his, "why did you not let them repair your vocaliser?"

Fully expecting to be snapped at or rebuked for his prying query, Skyfire was taken by surprise at the little giggle that came in response. "That?" asked Starscream, smirking in a way that could almost be construed as coy, "that's old news. Why bring that up?"

"No reason really, it just crossed my mind."

Starscream chuckled again, presumably at the blank surprise on his partner's face after hearing the first of these small laughs, and he offered a reply that truly answered nothing. "Isn't it obvious?"

And Skyfire could not repress a near-frustrated exhalation, though he knew Starscream was merely toying with him. "If it was obvious, would I be asking?"

"You think I'd let someone poke around in my throat? What if they took out my pharyngeal energon artery? I hate medics."

For a long moment, the white shuttle paused, and then, "Starscream, uh. Medics are meant to repair you, not kill you."

The good mood dissipated from Starscream astonishingly quickly, and he growled a little at his partner. "Maybe you didn't notice, but I don't trust people easily." A moment's silence, then he looked away. "Besides, it's fine the way it is. S'recognisable."

Ah yes, the overwhelming desire to be noticed shone through again, and Skyfire realised he should have expected it. But Starscream was right, the screech he spoke with was certainly recognisable.

He should have left it there; his question had been answered, and Starscream was beginning to clam up again, that measured blankness once again in place on his dark faceplates – but some part of him was gruesomely fascinated.

"The seekers have the same voice too?"

A sharp red look, the twitch of a sneer, and then Starscream was staring back down at his work. "Not _exactly_, most of us sound similar but we're not identical. Don't patronise me. We're just built the same, we're not drones."

"I – I didn't mean –"

"Why do you care so much, anyway?" Now Starscream's glare had turned suspicious, as though he suddenly expected his shuttle partner to turn and stab him in the back with the laboratory-issue laser scalpel he held.

Warning alarms fired in Skyfire's mind, and he knew that a wrong answer here could destroy every fragile thread of friendship he had constructed with this hateful, antisocial warrior. It was a test, and Starscream had cornered him into it.

"I'm curious," he answered honestly, spreading his arms wide in the universal disarming gesture, "I haven't heard of mass-production before, apart from the seekers and those maintenance 'bots in Tyrest, and I'm just trying to understand your viewpoint."

Starscream's responding silence was worrying, but at the same time relieving; that the jet had not instantly attacked him for his truthful reply meant that he was at least doing _something_ right. Then, at length, the seeker shrugged.

"Whatever."

Skyfire fought down a smile at the one word, which he was sure was the closest to permission and acceptance he would get.

O

With his probation period now complete, Skyfire was finally able to utilise the full resources available to him in the Nova Cronum facility, to start on his own research in whatever direction he required. While he'd been looking forward to his acceptance as a full member at the plant, now that it had finally happened, he honestly had no idea what direction to take his science.

"I've only ever done off-world xenology," he explained to Starscream, leaning against the wall in the jet's quarters while his partner lounged at ease on the berth.

Upon hearing it was the end of his initiation, Starscream had quietly asked the shuttle to join him in his quarters. Pleased, Skyfire had immediately acquiesced; he had not been expecting any sort of celebration, and had planned to feel quietly proud of himself over a cube at the facility tavern. That lonesome, socially-awkward Starscream had offered to congratulate him was... touching.

"So what?" the seeker shrugged his bulky shoulders. "If you had such a loving relationship with xenology, why did you bother transferring?"

Skyfire did not respond, knowing Starscream was right, instead idly fingering at one of the gouges in the wall by his hip.

"It's laughable, don't you think?" The grey-face jet continued as though he had not expected Skyfire to speak, and the white researcher wondered if he should feel offended at being called 'laughable'. "You say you're a xenologist and you know absolutely _nothing_ of Cybertron."

"Xenology is the study of _other_ species, not ours," pointed out Skyfire, slighted by Starscream's mocking but knowing the jet spoke the truth. His existence had been sheltered, at least concerning Cybertron politics and underground.

"You've been off-world, you must have been to planets with sentient life systems. I would have thought that all of them would be the same." The seeker spoke flatly as he inspected the barrel of one of his twin arm-mounted guns.

"Oh, I suppose you're the resident expert when it comes to Cybertronian society?" It came out a good deal more snidely than he had intended, but Skyfire was feeling as though Starscream was belittling him, not taking him seriously despite all he had accomplished.

Picking up on the offense he was causing his partner and snickering a little, Starscream shrugged and rearranged himself, completely relaxed. "Nice to see you have some pride," he smirked with a red stare directly into Skyfire's calm blue optics. "I'm no expert but I know a frag sight more than you. Two vorns in Kaon and you'd be the same."

Skyfire exhaled from his vents. Kaon. Despite everything he'd heard of the place – and most of it from the seeker's own mouth, from firsthand experience, the mild-tempered shuttle was having a hard time believing that _anywhere_ could be as dangerous and unforgiving as the southern polar state.

That must be what Starscream meant when he said Skyfire knew nothing of Cybertronian society. While the shuttle knew of anywhere with a connection to science, such as Altihex and Nova Cronum and Iacon, it was true that he had assumed that all cities were as peaceful and free of violence as his home.

Too late did Skyfire realise that his thought process had run away with him again, and that Starscream was staring at him in ill-disguised questioning amusement. Too late he realised that this had been Starscream's intention all along.

"You know, I don't think I've ever met a mech quite like you," murmured the jet, tilting his head as he studied his shuttle partner. "How... _refreshing _it is."

Unsure of whether Starscream was still mocking him or being sincere, and what it meant if it were the latter, Skyfire said nothing, instead shifting against the wall and then standing up straight.

Maybe it meant that Starscream was at last accepting him as a comrade, a friend, a colleague, whatever word he wanted to be associated with in the jet's mind. Perhaps Starscream just thought of him as weak-willed and, while that hurt Skyfire's pride, he was unsure of whether he would be able to better Starscream in a one-on-one fight, and was thus unwilling to challenge that idea.

And if it was the former...?

"Did you have any friends among the seekers?" Skyfire was not sure where the question came from; he asked it almost automatically following his escaping thought patterns, and, though Starscream seemed taken aback at first, he soon giggled again in that strange way of his and shrugged.

"Not really. I hated all of them, useless violent cowards. That's part of the reason I left." Starscream flashed an odd look at his partner. "Why are you so fascinated with my past? Is it because yours is boring?"

The blunt accusation stunned Skyfire, who mouthed wordlessly for a short moment before shaking his head.

"I just find it fascinating," he said quietly, "that's all."

"Hmph," sneered Starscream, "you can't have all the fun, and I don't believe that your past isn't as boring as you are. It's your turn to tell me. So go on."

"Uh."

The white shuttle could not think of what to say; not only had Starscream never shown the slightest interest in his background before, making this sudden and unexpected question a complete surprise, his ego was reeling at being called boring so casually, and his thoughts were spinning out of control.

"Well, go on," huffed the jet, folding his arms. "What's Altihex like? You keep bringing it up like you want me to ask you about it, so now I'm asking you about it."

"A-Altihex?" asked Skyfire stupidly, still trying to reign in his mind. The look that Starscream gave him then could have withered cast cybertronium alloy.

"Altihex, that city you came from, remember?" The exasperation sounded strong in the raspy, high-pitched scratch of the dark-faced seeker's voice. Starscream's cobalt hands moved behind his head and he rested his helm back on them idly. "What, did your processors short out?"

Shifting awkwardly and then lowering himself down the wall to sit back against it, Skyfire offlined his cool azure optics and thought back to Altihex. "To be honest, it's not really big enough to be called a city," he admitted vaguely, mind elsewhere.

"City, town, outpost, slagheap, whatever."

A faint blue glow as Skyfire's optics onlined. Silence, and then, "I love the place. It's a beautiful complex. You keep saying about Kaon and how disgusting it is, but Altihex is... it's lovely. There's no 'criminal underworld' or 'robot trafficking'," here Starscream snorted, though whether in amusement or derision it was impossible to tell, "there's just the exploration hub and the aristocracy buildings."

"So it's an upper-class resort for the famous and wealthy?" While the question itself was neutral enough, the sheer _contempt_ with which Starscream voiced it was shocking, as was the foul-tempered glare he now graced his lab partner with.

Skyfire shook his head. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not upper-class – and nor have I been looking down on you for being from Kaon. The xenology facility is slightly away from the wealthy part of the city, so that the light pollution doesn't interfere with input from the observatories. Sometimes we used to get groups of them around the facility grounds when they were on their turbofox hunts, I used to watch them, but that happened less frequently in this last half a vorn."

"You miss it?"

"Yes, sometimes," the white shuttle's voice was quiet, "it's my home."

Silence dragged on, and then Starscream laughed. Again thinking he should be offended, but somehow unable to actually demand why the jet thought his nostalgia was so funny, Skyfire watched without interrupting.

"I told you that your past was boring," sneered Starscream, pushing himself upright and then rising from the berth. "You used to watch the rich-mech hunts? Pff, how dull!"

"Hey now," reprimanded Skyfire gently, though his voice was stern and held a note of warning, "don't forget I spent most of my time off-planet. I didn't have much time to spend with other Transformers, so watching the hunts was as good a chance as any to see what I was missing."

Still with that same expression of lassitude about his mouth, Starscream shrugged his shoulders, as though trying his hardest to feign disinterest when, really, he burningly wanted to know more. "What sort of planets did you go to?"

"Organic-based, mostly. Ones that had already been chartered or had an investigative outpost erected. Usually I'd deliver energon and resources, or bring the injured home for medical treatment. I only went out on a solo expedition twice."

"They made a taxi of you?"

"I chose to become that."

Starscream stared hard at Skyfire, as though questioning why he would demean himself so. "Didn't it get boring, just ferrying stuff back and forth all the time?"

"Not really, I quite liked the time alone in deep space, it gave me a chance to think."

Blazing scarlet optics dimmed as Starscream processed this information, and, once again, the expression he wore on his dark face was unreadable, completely inscrutable. Skyfire did not look at him, instead happy to remember orns past, and it was because of this that, at first, he did not notice the blue hand hovering by his face. A shudder of surprise shook his chassis.

"Come on," hissed Starscream impatiently, glaring down at his partner, still holding out his hand. Skyfire took it, and he was hauled to his feet, standing to tower over the small seeker. "I want a drink, and you're coming with."

O

The corridors, were deserted. Starscream strode them like he owned them. For the past three orns or so, only very few had been around in Nova Cronum. Everyone else had departed for Iacon.

"The conference will be starting about now," Skyfire noted, watching his smaller partner strut the halls like a war hero.

"So? You should have gone if all you wanted to do was stay and make me feel guilty." Starscream snorted, not turning around. Skyfire could almost hear the scowl on the dark face, and he sighed from his vents.

"I do not mind," he murmured, loud enough for Starscream to hear, "I have nothing to present, nor am I quite good enough to take the projects of others. Actually, I was wondering if you were all right for not going?"

Starscream stopped dead, waiting for Skyfire to catch up with him, and then walked at a more sedate pace next to his taller workmate. "I don't really care. So I miss Sentinel Prime being there, so what? From what I hear, he's not much for science anyway. Besides, I don't have anything to back up my claims with yet, and until I have evidence, all I have is an idea."

"You could have presented that idea...?"

"If it's from a seeker, it's a bad idea." The tetrajet glanced sideways at the shuttle. "Don't you get all fragged off with me again, I'm just saying that's a fact of existence. It doesn't matter what _you_ think, you're not the science council. To them, any theory from any soldier, groundpounder or not, is laughable unless he has something to prove it with."

Skyfire did not argue, rather trying to remember the last time he had been at the Iacon science conference, trying to remember anything about the council of academics. In defeat at the unfairness, he threw his arms wide.

By his wrist, something clunked. Then there was a clang and, from the floor just behind him, a very reproachful 'ow'.

Both scientists stopped.

"I'm sorry," Skyfire apologised automatically, turning and offering his hand down to the unfortunate mech he had just knocked to the floor, "I wasn't looking at what I was doing."

"D-Don't mention it," the red-and-turquoise robot took Skyfire's hand with one of his own dark grey, hauling himself up, rubbing his mouth and chin with the other – a small dent just visible behind the metal of his fingers showed where Skyfire's wild gesture had struck.

The white shuttle inspected his, for want of a better word, victim, worried and, at the same time, aware that Starscream, just visible in the corner of his optics, was having trouble fighting down snickers. "Are you all right?"

"Ah, f-fine, thank you." The smallest flash of a smile behind the hand, "please excuse me," and he hurried away.

Skyfire watched him leave, and then shook his head when, as soon as the other mech was out of audio-range, Starscream stopped trying to hold his amusement in and dissolved into helpless shrieks of mirth.

"You just took him out," gasped the seeker, touching Skyfire's arm with his fingertips. "One movement of your arm and he's on the floor! I'm _impressed_."

"Thanks, I think," the white shuttle was still staring in the direction the red-bodied scientist had taken, "was that – was that a _gun_ on his shoulder?"

"Doubt it." The seeker shrugged, still chuckling softly. "Only military class mechs have inbuilt weapons, and he's definitely not structured to be in the military if you can knock him down so easy. Looked more like a lens to me."

"A lens?"

"Mm." Starscream inclined his head, a silent demand that they resume their way to the tavern rather than loitering pointlessly in the corridor. Skyfire joined his partner. "From the looks of it, I'd say he's some sort of microscope. You might not have noticed while you were assaulting him, but that construct on his chest looked like an examination tray, and that was definitely a magnification lens on his shoulder."

Skyfire barely had time to be impressed at the tetrajet's observational skill before the smaller mech was sighing and glaring again.

"I'm envious of him, a little," he admitted at last. "Must be nice to be programmed to enjoy doing what you were designed for."

Unsure of how to answer, and not wanting to risk letting Starscream fall into one of his dark moods, Skyfire changed the subject calmly. "Why do you suppose he's here? I thought everyone was at the conference."

The red-eyed warrior shook his head and snorted. "Maybe he's not at the conference for the same reason we're not. Slag it, Skyfire, you think too much, maybe you should mind your own business every once in a while."

Smirking faintly, recognising that Starscream was teasing him and that there was no danger of his mood turning dire, Skyfire took the bait. "If I kept to my own business, you would still be exploding energon compounds and plastering yourself to the walls."

Sneering and twisting his lips to respond just as snarkily, Starscream met Skyfire's gaze with his fiery red optics and then looked away, without replying at all.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author Note: **Sorry about the long delay, moving back home and starting a new job sort of made the days fly by. I'll try to be more frequent with the next chapters.

* * *

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 7**

"You know," said Starscream idly, matter-of-factly, "it's not well-known, but it is perfectly possible to cause irreparable blindness in another mech."

Glancing up from his work to see the unabashed horrified disgust on his lab mate's faceplates, Starscream laughed openly, amused at the shuttle's pacifism. His good-humour was only increased when Skyfire, in a stunned fascination, inquired further.

"How? Surely if the circuitry is corrupted or the optic glass shattered, it can just easily be replaced?"

"Actually, optic circuitry is complex, and is latticed in to the structure of the central processors extraordinarily intricately, it makes interpreting the optical feed easier. If you apply enough heat to the external ocular wires, the entire lengths will burn out, and there's not a medic on Cybertron who will remove the ocular connection lattice from the brain of a living mech to replace it. It's too dangerous."

Skyfire turned his head up to regard his friend, who was still staring at him levelly, waiting for the inevitable horrified reaction.

"Why do you know that?" He asked quietly, uncertainly. Sometimes, the insights into Starscream's psyche could prove as disturbing as they were interesting. "That's something that a torturer should know, not a soldier."

"Hm? Didn't I tell you? We carry out most of our repairs on ourselves. We're all minimally qualified as medics, we can repair superficial damage. It's cost efficient."

"Cost –"

"Kaon is a poor area." Starscream shrugged, cutting across his partner, already knowing what was going to be said. "Besides, anybot of us who suffers more than superficial damage is slagged anyway. Waste of resources to call in specialists, not that many would come to Kaon in the first place."

Once again, the near-callous lack of emotion with which Starscream could describe scenarios that, to Skyfire, were abhorrent and repulsive was truly astounding, and something of an optic-opener. Come to think of it, only last orn, Starscream had taken great delight in the white shuttle's appalled expressions when he had calmly told his larger partner the most efficient way to kill another mech.

Skyfire still remembered that, and doubted he would forget anytime soon. Through the neck, Starscream had said. Cut the energon arteries and the central processors would be flooded within half a kilk – and not only that, but the throat was the most tender and vulnerable part of a Cybertronian's body. It was a fundamental design flaw, the seeker noted, grinning inanely the whole time.

The white scientist suspected, and had almost since Starscream had first told him about Kaon, that the tetrajet would come out with this appalling information in a matter-of-fact tone of voice just to see the expressions that crossed the honest researcher's face. Indeed, Starscream always seemed cheered or amused at the naïveté of his workmate, and, Skyfire suspected, took great pleasure in the shock value of many of the facets of his life, so violent and unthinkable to the sheltered shuttle.

"Pass me that radon pulse generator, will you?"

Starscream took the tool that was offered to him from his partner's outstretched hand with a noiseless nod of thanks, and he laid it on the bench by his work and stared at Skyfire.

"You working to a deadline?" He asked, his prickly voice like nitrogen ice.

"Not really, why?"

With a tone as dull as unshone metal, a slump in his stance that spoke of endless lassitude, Starscream seemed to sag over his work, lamenting belligerently, "I'm so _bored_."

"Only boring mechs get bored," mocked Skyfire gently, still smarting from the jibes about his own 'lack of interest' that Starscream had thrown at him some orns prior. "Besides, I thought science was what you were passionate about?"

"Mmyeah, but even if you enjoy doing something, it can get boring if you can't get past a certain problem."

Watching the seeker stretch out during his complaining, Skyfire was struck by a burst of inspiration. Starscream, while claiming knowledge of Cybertronian politics and culture, had only ever been to two cities: Kaon, of course, and Nova Cronum. Though he himself had not ever touched down on Cybertron but in Altihex and Nova Cronum, Skyfire, in his role as a shuttle, had flown over Tyrest, once over the United Polyhex Territories, once even over the very outskirts of Iacon.

"Have you ever heard of Praxus?" He asked. From the blank look on Starscream's grey face, he guessed the answer to be 'no'. So the jet's scathing and blunt denial of knowledge, though characteristic of the rough seeker's personality, was unnecessary.

"Th'slag is Praxus?"

"It's a small city-district between here and Tyrest, I flew over it once. It's not that far away."

"Do I care?"

Skyfire found himself shrugging, something he had certainly been doing more often since meeting this arrogant little seeker.

"There's a crystalline anomaly there, it's known as the Helix Gardens. I've heard it's quite a vent-shaking sight. Are you interested in going to have a look?"

Starscream gave a very odd expression to Skyfire, as though trying to work out his workmate's objectives, what the shuttle was trying to achieve with his offer.

"I should really be getting on with my work," he said dismissively, turning back to the report he was halfway through writing on the volatility, or lack thereof, of tutonium compounds.

"Come now," and Skyfire laughed at his contrary friend, "just a moment ago you were telling me that you were bored out of your mind with your work."

"I changed my mind."

"You're fickle."

Starscream shook his head in amusement. "How long would it take to fly out there?"

"That depends on your maximum speed." Skyfire shrugged as he spoke, stowing away the datapad he had been studying prior to the start of the conversation.

The tetrajet smirked conceitedly. "Beyond three times the speed of sound, same as all seekers. We're the fastest airborne force on Cybertron." His pride was dripping, almost tangible in the air.

"So it'll take under a joor to get there, I imagine. Perhaps a demi-joor at most."

Shrugging in that way of his, Starscream packed away the reports he had been working on, locking down the reactor as procedure required.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt for me to go with you," he purred, and Skyfire found himself smiling at the exasperated and reluctant tone with which the tetrajet accepted a trip he was probably yearning for.

O

Praxus itself was a nondescript city state between the borders of Tyrest, as determined by the broad chasm scarring Cybertron's surface, known as the Gulf of Tyrest, and the very farthest outer reaches of Hyorax. Though hardly large enough to register as an independant state, and the hub of very little, Praxus was famous over the planet for its Helix Gardens.

A yet-unexplained geophysical anomaly caused the stunning crystal formations, some of which seemed to grow from the small trenches and larger chasms that split the land, some of which, more confusingly, defied gravity and hovered unsupported in the air in a spectacular phenomenon.

It was, simply put, a place of beauty to those Cybertronians with interest in the arts or philosophy, and a place of intrigue to the scientists who spent deca-cycles trying to work out how the anomaly remained, how the huge crystals, some bigger than the average robot, stayed afloat without support.

Starscream transformed as he touched down, the heated exhaust fumes from his afterburners searing the dull metal of the ground as he landed, with surprising control and lightness considering the speed he had been travelling at, on tiptoe. Airy and unconcerned, the grey-faced jet brushed non-existent dirt from his hands as he threw idle glances around his landing point.

From the levitating crystals, it was not hard to guess he was in the right place – of course, he would have known for sure had he not become bored of Skyfire's comparatively low maximum speed and rocketed away, leaving the larger shuttle to lag behind. Slow and bulky and cumbersome. Starscream almost pitied him for it.

It took almost a full klik for Skyfire to catch up with his workmate and land, with much less control than the practised tetrajet had, in one of the few spaces in the field not littered with haphazardly-formed rock structures.

"Took your time," snipped the tetrajet, who was, by then, lounging at ease while still managing to appear wary and taut. Slender laser cannons on his arms glistened in the irregular cast light from the crystal constructs.

"Quiet," retorted the shuttle, intakes cycling faster than the norm as he recovered from flight at a speed that, for him, was too tiring and inefficient to be kept up for quite as long as he did. While he was built for endurance at lower, more sedate speeds, he had certainly not been manufactured to match the dizzying velocity reached by Starscream.

Amused at his friend's exhaustion, Starscream stretched out, mostly to taunt. "I thought you were full of energy?" He teased, poking fun at the shuttle, who was now bent nearly double, regaining himself after the strain of trying to keep up with the tetrajet. "Just admit you're nothing compared to me."

"Arrogant little glitch," gasped Skyfire breathlessly.

"Outdated malfunction," came the ireless retort.

Finally, Skyfire straightened and smirked down at his smaller companion, who matched the expression and then turned away and stared, seemingly unimpressed, at the crystal formations.

"So this is what you dragged me out here to show me?" Sounding suitably bored, the seeker reached to the nearest of the helices and laid his palm against it. Disappointingly, there was no spectacular glow around his exoplating, nor unnatural heat, nor sudden explosion. The formation remained inert and unresponsive.

"I just thought you would appreciate the change of scenery. Besides, admit it. You were dying to come out here."

Starscream sneered at the accusation, which was accompanied by an almost-guilty tilt of the head from his shuttle workmate.

"Whatever," he drawled, clearly defensively acting more uninterested than he really was, "I suppose I should make the most of it."

Skyfire watched his friend meander over to one of the helices suspended in the air and run his hands over it. He watched the dark lips move as the seeker muttered unintelligibly to himself, and, even from this distance, he caught the occasional word, 'fascinating', 'unnatural', 'slag-formed' and the like as Starscream pondered what had baffled scientist for vorns.

And then, as though struck by something ephemeral and invisible, the tetrajet stiffened and froze, optics flaring and narrowing to burning crimson slits.

"Starscream?" Skyfire called, crossing to join his partner, worried if there was something wrong.

"Are we near Kaon here?" asked the seeker tersely, not answering the unspoken question.

"Nearer than we were, but not especially close. Why?"

"How many hics?"

"Over fifty, I would estimate. The Tyrest sub-continent landmass is still between us and the border-reaches of the south polar, and Kaon's right in the middle of that. Maybe closer to seventy, or even around a centohic if I'm measuring wrong."

Starscream seemed agitated. "And Nova Cronum?"

"Quite a lot further north than we are now." Skyfire finally gave up. "What's wrong?"

"I'm picking up a military radio broadcast again," and Starscream seemed somewhat perturbed, though whether by the unexpected transmission or the contents of it was unclear, "I thought I'd been cut from the system when I left."

Turning his head and looking around them at the empty helix fields, Skyfire offered an opinion. "Perhaps it is on a local frequency and you were simply out of range in Nova Cronum?"

"That's what I thought but for as far away as we are now, it seems a bit long-range to be local..."

The shuttle studied his smaller companion, who was unsettled and fidgety, and had a look of deep concentration and dislike furrowed across his dark brow.

"Does it bother you?" He asked calmly, kindly. "We can leave if it upsets you."

Without giving a straightforward and spoken response, Starscream instead externalised his radio so that the voices transmitting rang loud and audible through the slight interfering static, so Skyfire could hear. Before the shuttle could even think of questioning the sanity of letting him, a civilian, listen to confidential military broadcasts, Starscream was pressing a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence.

"_Designation eight-eight-four requesting back-up in --_"

"_Negative, Commander, energon stains fresh, body found --_"

The scramble of overlapping transmissions, all quiet and interlacing, betrayed the tangle of voices to be of several different interlacing frequencies, some military, some law enforcement, all faint and somewhat hard to make out.

"Starscream –" started Skyfire, but the tetrajet held up a blue hand to silence him, intent on catching up with the military life he had left behind. Though he disparaged it so often, claimed it had been a living hell, it seemed he still had trouble letting go.

That was when the shuttle stopped listening. He had no interest in this violent world of Cybertron, this web of slaying and the debasing of mechs to worthless expendable objects, units of murder. He was happy enough in his hazy ignorance and blissful naïveté.

"_Alpha four-one-three-three requesting extra unit guarding Emirate Lutus at Kaon centre in half a cycle._"

It was that sentence that was the pinnacle of Starscream's eavesdropping. Louder and clearer than the other mixed incoming transmissions on the frequency, this one appeared to have more meaning to the tetrajet. Skyfire's attention was drawn back to his friend as Starscream stiffened and gasped out and stared with wide, surprised optics.

"_This is designation alpha two-eight-one_," the grey faced jet hissed in unauthorised response to the order, his new scraping voice unrecognisable to anyone who might have known him. "_Request clarification. __**Senator**__ Lutus, Emirate Syracuse, correct?_"

Laughter over the radio. "_Two-eight-one, you had your memory banks fritzed? Syracuse deposed, Lutus in power._"

For a moment, Starscream remained silent, stunned. Then, "_Syracuse incarcerated?_"

"_Negative, two-eight-one, Syracuse executed by gunshot to the spark. Charges; gross misconduct, robot trafficking, conspiracy to murder. Over, out._"

The radio went dead, though it was because Starscream had once again silenced it, limited the output to his own internal sensors rather than out in the open for Skyfire to listen to.

"Is this a surprise to you?" asked the shuttle, reading Starscream's terse body language correctly. The red-eyed jet seemed troubled, nipped his lower lip in agitation, gazing someplace distant, in another time.

"This is bad," he rasped at last, wringing his cobalt hands together. Skyfire had never seen him so obviously upset by anything, not even before their friendship had started, on the day they met when Starscream had almost been excluded from the Nova Cronum facility.

Surprised, the shuttle could not stop himself from questioning his friend as they started to walk together amongst the glimmering, hovering crystal helices of Praxus. "How so? Forgive me for assuming, but from your attitude to Kaon, I thought you found the politics of it abhorrent."

"I do." Starscream was nodding, still nervously wringing his hands together. "All the posh frags in Kaon are slimy worthless glitches who'd sell out their creators for a premium on the energon processing business."

"If you despise them so much, then why are you so bothered by the power shift?"

The two aviators strode past a huge formation, a merged group of three of the helix crystals, separate entities forced together by some unimaginably powerful force of nature on ancient, pre-civilised Cybertron.

"Because Syracuse was good as an Emirate," replied the tetrajet, kicking moodily at a sliver of crystal that had fallen from a height, broken away from its parent by erosion and intense scientific investigation.

"He was kind?"

"Ha!" Sneering, the jet shook his head vehemently. "Hardly! _He _was the one who commissioned the seekers, and he thought nothing of blackmailing anyone he could and siphoning profits from those under his control. But he _was_ weak-minded and pretty easy to manipulate, so those of us who were clever enough could get what we wanted out of him. Like how I got out, I blackmailed him into letting me leave."

Pausing, showing no remorse after the bland statement of his crime, Starscream shook his head. "But Lutus is a nasty piece of work, him and his underling Senator Ratbat, who heads the intelligence network. They're underhanded and cruel and..." for the first time, Skyfire saw a flash of true fear in his friend.

"Does it affect you?" He offered, voice comforting, a soothing duotone. "I mean, that's in Kaon, you're based in Nova Cronum now. We have a different governor, a different administration system, we're closer to Iacon."

Unable to believe it, Skyfire watched the smaller scientist tremble – it was almost imperceptible, but it was there nonetheless.

"What if he calls me back?" The question was dull, lifeless, worried as Starscream battled with his anxiety.

"Do you have to go? Does Nova Cronum have an extradition agreement with Kaon?" In a comforting, relaxing gesture, Skyfire laid a white hand upon the top of Starscream's dark helm. To his surprise, the seeker did not bat him away, instead even tilting his head back a little as they walked. "If no agreement exists, they cannot legally force you to go back..."

Starscream fidgeted and shook his head and pressed subtly closer to Skyfire's comforting bulk, causing the large white flier to frown in mild suspicion. However, knowing how Starscream liked his privacy, and not wanting to pry needlessly, he let it lie.

"I don't want to go back." Starscream muttered, clenching his fists compulsively and snarling at the nearest crystal. "I'd rather lose my wings. I'd rather lose my flight."

The two stopped walking, though the seeker did not stand still, disquieted and shaky. Skyfire, concerned, took pity on the other scientist.

"We should head back," he stated, and watched as Starscream's bulky and cumbersome shoulders sagged in relief, knowing that by offering the option he had saved the jet the shame of admitting his discomfort.

Still, even though his gratitude was obvious enough to be not only visible but transmittable through the hand that Skyfire still held on Starscream's head, the seeker refused to show it. Still trying to hide it away.

"I guess," he growled out, "if you're bored with this place already."

Sighing in mock-exasperation, Skyfire nodded. "Yes, that's right. I'm bored. Let's go."

Both took to the air in bipedal mode, hovering some small distance above the ground before transforming and taking to the suborbital atmosphere of Cybertron. Starscream, recovering fast now that the promise to be away from Praxus and its proximity to the southern polar states loomed large, allowed himself a parting shot before he kicked up his thrusters and left Skyfire eating his exhaust fumes.

"But Skyfire, only boring mechs get bored."


	8. Chapter 8

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 8**

While Starscream had not enjoyed the excursion to Praxus as much as Skyfire had hoped he might, it seemed to have cured the seeker's lassitude. Or perhaps the reason that Starscream buried himself obsessively in his work from the moment he returned to the laboratories was simply a tactic to distract himself.

Though the shuttle did not like to pry, he _had_ noticed that Starscream was still shaky from the eavesdropped military radio transmission he had pirated. At first, he had not even thought to ask why, sure that Starscream had only had a scare, would be fine after spending some time in Nova Cronum's familiar hallways.

He was wrong.

In his life, Skyfire didn't remember ever seeing anyone as spooked as the tetrajet after the news of the power shift in Kaon, no matter how many hundreds or thousands of megamiles away it was. No words could be found to adequately describe the strength of Starscream's fear, which his lab partner did not fully discover until several orns after the trip.

For two orns, the seeker tried to continue his work, his blue hands shaking so badly that he slopped liquid energon over the workbench. After that, he stopped showing up, and Skyfire did not see him anywhere about the complex.

As the orns passed and Skyfire became increasingly concerned about his friend's wellbeing, the white shuttle made the decision, since he knew where the jet's room was, to go there and to make sure he was all right, though the huge white mech had to admit he was apprehensive considering what he may find there. Though he knew he was exaggerating in his own mind, part of him, feeling how unusual it was to have nothing but silence from the outspoken jet, thought the worst, that there would be nothing but a cold and non-functioning body waiting for him.

So Skyfire, abandoning his work in favour of verifying his loud-mouthed labmate's wellbeing, took the trek to Starscream's private quarters, and, upon reaching the familiar threshold, he loitered uncertainly outside the door.

The reason for his hesitancy was his firm belief that the private quarters of a mech were his sanctuary. Once, when he had come to offer an apology, he had forced his way into Starscream's rooms because his anger had been in control of him, his impressive temper finally snapped by the arrogant jet – and, although it had resulted in his learning so much about the reasons for Starscream's antisocial attitude, he did still regret doing that.

Any other times he had visited, he had been invited, except for now...

Skyfire knocked. There was no answer. When he knocked again, there was a noise from within, and then a screeched, "who the frag is that!?"

"Starscream," offered the white shuttle calmingly, kindly, a chilling feeling gripping at his spark when he heard the weakness of his friend's voice, "it's me."

For a moment that seemed to drag on, there was just a heavy and somewhat chilling silence. Then, from within the room, the crashing sounds of clumsy movements, and the clicking of unlocking. The door slid open, Starscream dragging Skyfire in before the shuttle could speak and again shutting and locking it secure.

Surprised at the nervous – nay, _fearful_ haste that was seemingly dwelling within Starscream, Skyfire took his usual place leaning against the wall and studied the small room. Usually nothing changed, the walls remaining scratched, the lonely and claustrophobic unfurnished metal staying dull and dusty and unshone.

But today, there was old lubricant dried in pools upon the floor, neon pink raw energon, primed for ingesting rather than having bled from injuries, splashed over the recharge berth and up the walls. Fresh scratches – and these looking for all Cybertron as though they had been caused by claw-held fingers and not the seeker's inbuilt laser cannons.

And then there was Starscream, who had thrown himself to sit against the wall on his berth. Cobalt hands wrung together in agitation and the blazing scarlet optics, usually so full of vitality, instead flickered dim, caught between offlining and burning bright.

In his sheltered existence, Skyfire had never before encountered such a strong, powerful example of paralysing, unadulterated terror.

Silence drew on. The tension was tangible, the suspense unbearable. Eaten away with concern, the huge white researcher could finally hold his quiet no longer.

"Starscream," he said, voice and demeanour calm while emotions raged inside him. Words struggled to come out all at once as the tetrajet sat on the berth and _trembled_. "What's going on? What's happened to you?"

"Nothin'!" growled the jet, voice so high and taut it was almost a squeal. It did not take any great genius to reach the conclusion that he was lying.

Although it was not something he would usually think to do with the aloof jet, who held such disdain for anyone touching his plating, Skyfire, slowly and deliberately (so as not to spook his friend), moved to sit on the berth next to the seeker and, after only a moment's hesitation, rested one hand upon the bulk of a winged shoulder.

"Don't lie to me," he admonished gently, "I can see there's something wrong."

Starscream drooped. Skyfire tensed; it was not a droop caused by guilt nor of shame for lying to the shuttle, but rather by a simple lack of energy.

"When did you last recharge your systems?"

The jet's response was growled out defensively. "Don't remember."

"Oh Starscream, that's not healthy!"

Red optics flashed. "Can't let my guard down!"

Even more worried by this unexpected admittance, Skyfire smoothed his thumb over the flat edge of Starscream's left caudal wing. He didn't even need to ask whether his friend had taken energon – the amount spattered over the bed proved that, though the jet had tried, his converters had rejected it and it had been forced back up.

"My converters interpreted as poison..." hissed the warrior-mech, following the direction of Skyfire's optics with his own and proffering the information without being prompted. Worried, the large white researcher opened his mouth to speak, even starting the first word of his inevitable question.

Suddenly, cutting off the speech prematurely, Starscream's trembling intensified to the extent that his wing plating was rattling against Skyfire's fingers.

"What's the matter?" Asked the shuttle again, voice serious and tight with his worry, in no mood to be lied to a second time. "Don't tell me that it's nothing when it's obvious you're not telling the truth. There's been something wrong since we took that trip to Praxus... is this to do with that power switch in Kaon?"

The tetrajet twitched. Skyfire knew he was right.

For perhaps a demi-klik, there was silence, and then Starscream's head fell into his hands in a mixture of irrational paranoia and abject exhaustion. He wailed out piteously.

"He'll send enforcers out for me! They'll come to get me!"

Slowly, carefully, Skyfire eased the jet secure against him. "'He'? The new Emirate? Why would you think that? What could he possibly want with one seeker when he has an army of them?"

But if he thought his reasoning would calm the jet down, he was sorely mistaken. If anything, Starscream's tremors intensified, his optics flaring in a building frenzy of panic.

"You don't understand!" He cried, cobalt fingers scratching at Skyfire's brilliant white plating, streaking faint blue paint over the immaculate and buffed shine. "I'm a _soldier_ and I left, that's _desertion_! Desertion is a felony in Kaon, I'll be extradited and executed! You heard what he did to Syracuse, gunshot to the spark, _gunshot to the spark _- !"

When Starscream began to struggle, Skyfire, though considering letting him go and allowing him free in case the strong jet caused him injury, instead, almost instinctively, kept holding him, restraining him.

Perhaps he needn't have worried; though the reasons for Starscream's lack of recharge _or_ liquid fuel were unknown, that the seeker hadn't re-energised had greatly affected his performance. What would usually have been strong and almost deadly power was now but a weak and vain flail in Skyfire's strength.

"Calm down," encouraged the huge shuttle, voice reasonable and almost soothing in its monotone. "Now why would the Emirate care about you, all the way out here? We're gigamiles from Kaon, I doubt they would waste the resources."

Still, Starscream would not be calmed, wailing his words out in a high-pitched rasping squeal. "You don't understand! I got out by blackmailing that psychopath, and now he's dead it'll be taken as a personal affront, they'll drag me back and make an example of me-!"

Heaving a great and weary sigh, Skyfire shook his head. "You see what happens when you break the law?"

Starscream's panic was punctuated by an irritated growl of self-defence, "what else was I supposed to do! I would have been stuck there until termination if I hadn't done something!"

Just as calm as ever, Skyfire ran careful circles over Starscream's exoplating with one thumb. "All right," he murmured, placating and calming, wracking his brains for a way to help Starscream over a fear that the shuttle was _sure_ was completely unfounded and utterly irrational. "How about you give me the frequency for Kaonite news feeds? If you're really as high-profile as you say, there's going to be an alert for you, right?"

"... yeah, I guess so..." Even as he spoke callously, the grating voice was high and hoarse with fear, and shivering still racked the tetrajet's bulky form.

"All right, so I'll listen out, and if there's nothing about you on the feed then you'll know that you're safe. Then you can calm down and put all this behind you. Forget it ever happened. Does that sound reasonable?"

Again, there was a pause as Starscream regained control of himself before answering. "... Yeah."

The ex-soldier, with some trouble because of the shuddering of his fingers, manually programmed Skyfire's internal radio to pick up the news feed frequency originating from Kaon.

Perhaps as was to be expected, the signal from Kaon was very faint and interlaced with sometimes indecipherably heavy static, which crackled over the broadcast and made it hard to distinguish some of the words, occasionally even melting onto the frequencies either side and merging with signals from, in turn, Uraya, Tyrest and the united Polyhex regions of Vos and Tarn.

Kliks passed in silence. Occasionally there would come the news of a murder, or a robbery, or one of the senators making a statement about the influx of migrant Empty workers milling about the under-streets of the city, offering favours for a half-cube of old energon and a patch-up of lubricant. Breems passed, and then a quarter-joor, and then a demi-cycle. Still nothing of a fugitive seeker, or any words concerning any mech of Starscream's built, colour or designation.

As the first cycle came and went, Skyfire tried to point out the futility of carrying on channelling the fading and erratic signal, but Starscream, who had by then worked himself into a deep paranoia, was beyond reason. Only solid proof that there could be no possibility of his being hunted down and charged with felony would shake him from his mistrustful and fearful state.

It was almost enough to make Skyfire give up hope; upon analysing the chances of some incontrovertible proof of Starscream's safety being transmitted across the feed, he had to admit his conclusion – the chances were depressingly slim. But he did not give up, because his antisocial friend had no one else to turn to if not him, and no mech could last long without allowing for recharge _or_ taking energon regularly.

And then the miracle happened. Voices, unrecognisable because of the static but with tones imperious enough to belong to certainly senators, if not one of them being the Emirate himself, argued over the transmission.

Tempers ran high, if the force and volume was anything to go by, and the words were spoken in anger. Thinking quick, Skyfire externalised his output so that Starscream could listen in to the broadcast – and it was just as well he did, for, while he could make out hardly anything because of the interfering static noise and the strong South Polar accents of some of the mechs speaking, he could see Starscream understood far better.

Finally, the taut grey faceplates relaxed. At last, the lips that had been fixed in trembling fear drew upwards in a wide and relieved grin. After orns, Starscream's limbs relaxed enough for them to stop their spasmodic shivering. The tetrajet slumped back against his berth and laughed in hoarse respite.

"Good news?" Asked Skyfire rhetorically, prompting an explanation for the sudden and abrupt change in his friend's demeanour.

"Of course!" Starscream smirked as he said it, but it was very rare for the lithe tetrajet to sound so relieved. "Thank, thank Primus!"

Skyfire, knowing that Starscream was recovering fast, rose from the berth and crossed to the small, private store alcove present in each dormitory, where a scant number of near-full energon cubes were scattered across the ground. When he picked one up to carry over to Starscream, the seeker caught his optic, gesturing for him to take one himself. He did.

"Are you going to tell me what this wonderful news is, or do I have to guess?" His voice was snide and gently teasing as, in one huge hand, one hand big enough to grip Starscream by the helm and crush his head should the shuttle have wished such a thing, he offered out a cube. Cobalt hands relieved him of the small burden and he sat upon the edge of the berth again, sipping from his own. Automatically, his hand fell back upon Starscream's grey head, and faint shivers still passed through his fingers.

""I'm tempted to make you guess," sneered the dark-faced warrior, "but we'd be here all vorn knowing you."

The near-bipolar change of mood, and the time, or, more accurately, lack of time it had occurred in, was astounding.

"Come on then," teased Skyfire patiently, "I'm simply _dying_ to know."

Starscream smirked and passed his glossa over his lips, smearing them with the energon residue that lingered after his hungrily gulping down the contents of the cube he held.

"Senator Ratbat has rallied all the mechs who were fragged that Syracuse was deposed and splintered away, and they're staging a rebellion right in the heart of the city where the council buildings are. While Kaon's in a state of violent civil unrest and political instability, no one's going to care about one little seeker...!"

Shaking his head fondly, Skyfire sighed in mock-exasperation. "There," he said, "what did I tell you? People have more important things than you on their mind, you know."

"_You_ don't," a harshly-spoken but ultimately harmless retort.

"Of course not," replying jibe for jibe, Skyfire mocked even while he questioned how truthful that statement really was. Back when he had first met the rude, self-centred jet, back when he had first seen how hard it was to get along with the seeker, he had never believed that they could possibly become such good friends.

Skyfire offlined his internal radio, no longer wanting to be bothered by the scratchy, irritating voices that still crackled through. It was then that he noticed his hand still lay upon Starscream's head, and, coincidentally, the tetrajet noticed at almost exactly the same time.

Deceptively gentle, belying their tremendous power potential, cold hands closed on the white metal encasing the top of the dark helm, cerulean fingers wrapped around Skyfire's hand to lift it away. Starscream laid the hand he held back upon his friend's lap and then his fingers fell away.

"Don't touch me," he said amiably. The words sounded so strange without the hissing, hateful undertones that usually accompanied them.

"Sorry," answered Skyfire automatically. And there was no real meaning to the word - no feeling behind it and no sentiment in the shuttle's mind.

Smirking, Starscream sat and stared at Skyfire, with an empty cube in one hand. The piercing scarlet gaze did not bother the large shuttle, who matched it for a short while and then smiled and set his own cube, still half full thanks to his taking energon not long before deciding to come and check on his grey-faced warrior friend.

A light silence flew by, lingering rather than dragging. Rather than an awkward and forced wordlessness, the lack of conversation was calming and, at last, the faint, quiet rattles from Starscream's trembling subsided as the jet stilled his limbs.

"So," Skyfire murmured quietly, "you going to show up in the labs next orn or am I going to have to work by myself again?"

The response did not come instantly, but the smirk did. And then Starscream snorted with snide mirth. "Keh, I reckon I'll just leave you by yourself again."

"You'd better show up." Teasing his friend as he so often found himself doing these days, Skyfire managed to keep his voice toneless and neutral even though the urge to laugh was almost overwhelming. "People are starting to talk."

It was a learning experience sometimes, watching Starscream's usually stoic face, seeing the telling expressions that could twist across it. While the tetrajet obviously did not wish to seem concerned about what 'people' could possibly be talking about, his burning and, at that moment, uncontrollable curiosity eventually won him over.

"Talking? about what?" came the inevitable question, quiet and suspicious.

"About you, of course." Lied the shuttle easily, a white lie, an innocent lie. Other mechs at the Cronum facility rarely talked to him about Starscream – after the first few orns of their friendship, back when it was Big News, he had firmly told anyone who approached him that he was not prepared to gossip about the private and personal seeker. But what Starscream didn't know was perfect for joking among partners.

"About me?"

"Yes, because no one's seen you around for a while. They say that I've scared you away because I'm so big, you think you can't take me down."

Starscream snorted. "I could take you down easily, fraghead."

"I don't doubt it," smirked Skyfire, not rising to the obvious bait. His falsehood continued. "Some of them even seem to think that I took you out to Praxus and killed you, and that I've melted you down to use in my experiments."

Watching Starscream sit in stunned silence, Skyfire could hold his blank expression no longer. And as soon as his face split into a wide and giveaway grin, Starscream pointed an accusing finger.

"You're lying!"

Laughing, the white researcher admitted his guilt. "Yes, I'm lying. But I do want you back at work, if only for the company."

"Hmph." In fake indignation, Starscream's crimson optics flickered. He sounded hurt when he spoke, but Skyfire knew it was not sincere. "You should value me more."

Skyfire sighed and shoved Starscream lightly on one bulky shoulder. The jet's strength was such that he barely moved. "I do value you. So are you going to bother to show up tomorrow?" He rose to his feet, handing his unfinished cube to Starscream, "because I need to leave, now you're feeling better."

Starscream watched his friend step to the door of the dormitory and turn back to look at him, optics azure pinpricks on his honest face.

"Yes," he said, "I will be there."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author Note:** Firstly, let me apologise for the ridiculously long interval between this chapter and the last. Real life caught up with me, what with working, being on holiday, moving house, not having the internet for three weeks and attending this year's Auto Assembly convention. I've hardly noticed the time go by.

I will try my hardest not to leave such a long gap in production again.

--

**The Spires of Altihex**

**Chapter 9**

"You showed up, then," Skyfire crooned sarcastically, a gentle jibe, not looking up from his work as Starscream slunk through the door to the reactor almost a cycle and a half after their agreed meeting time. As soon as the words left his vocaliser, he was aware of, even if he could not see it, a penetrating red-eyed glared falling upon the back of his wings.

"Laugh it up," growled the other mech. A moment later there was a noise of shattering glass, a delicate chiming belying the violence of the action it resulted from. Turning his head sharply at the noise, Skyfire saw his partner, with one sweep of a wing-laden arm, had knocked an entire complex of flasks and thin-walled tubing to the floor, leaving the bench-top clean. Broken glass glimmered in the dull blue-tinged light, twinkling innocuously on the floor, dripping with various coloured liquids, some of which sizzled at the metal they splashed onto.

While concerned, Skyfire knew through experience now that Starscream's mood swings were unpredictable and extreme. It was for this reason, rather than a lack of caring, that he did not immediately rush to his friend's side, ask him what was wrong, but instead grumbled quietly, "I hope you're not expecting me to clear that up."

It earned him another heated glare. Starscream's screechy voice was painful to the audio. "Shut your fragging face."

Then the seeker slouched to sit on a dulled metal crate against the bench, folding his arms and slouching over them to rest his head in them. Only his scarlet optics glared fearsomely over the top, twin pinpoints promising pain and retribution upon some unnamed tormentor.

At first, the shuttle ignored him. Although Starscream had been quite fragile in the events following the ill-fated Praxus expedition, the white researcher had now some experience of how the warrior-mech's mind worked and was confident in his ability to make a full recovery. On top of that, the strength of his fear had been so powerful that it had leaked from him and into his partner, making even unflappable Skyfire feel nervous and unsafe. This emotion, whatever had caused it, was nowhere near as strong – it was more of a sulk than any real anger.

Ignoring became tedious. A sigh.

With long-suffering resignation carefully masking a nagging concern, Skyfire looked over to his friend. For once, Starscream was not difficult to read, and the white shuttle took only astroseconds working out a conclusion with regard to what had put the seeker in such a foul mood. From the flare in his optics, the tilt of his head, the turned-away, mistrustful angle of his thin dark face spoke only of a hurt from some third party.

"No," growled the seeker before Skyfire could even open his mouth, "it's not anything new and no, I don't want to talk about it. Get the frag on with your work and stop poking your fat chassis in my life."

The large shuttle opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and closed his parted lips again with a small but audible snap. Saying nothing more, he turned back to his work, though was aware of scarlet eyes boring into the back of his neck, Starscream's relentless gaze as the tetrajet watched him work.

Somehow, Skyfire had noticed in those times when Starscream came into the reactor in a foul mood, those dire tempers were eased when the smaller mech watched his friend with his research. The trend did not break with this instance, and, even without looking at his companion, the white explorer could feel the seething, indignant rage die down, ease into a soft, bubbling and palpably naïve interest.

"What are you here for?" the tetrajet asked at last, his head tilted to the side, masking curiosity as an innocence that was not and likely never had been there. "I just remembered, I never asked you why you bothered to come here, if Altihex was as nice a place as you said."

Looking up from the notes he had scribbled on a datapad, Skyfire's expression was one of mild surprise; certainly, he had not been expecting Starscream to ask him that question, rather that the jet would just assume he had come for the same reason as his own – for a better life.

"I fancied a change," he said calmly, turning his attention back down to the worktop, having no real wish to see the sneer that would cross Starscream's face, not listen to the surely-inevitable lecture about how easy he had had it in his younger vorns. But neither came.

"How is it turning out for you?"

The large white researched shrugged, optics flickering. "... I do not know whether or not I prefer it to my exploration, to be honest. I do find myself missing the depths of space. So it is... all right, but not as good as I had hoped."

Apparently, Starscream had either no answer to give or had just stopped listening, for there was silence that fell upon the reactor. Skyfire did not look up to his partner again, but perhaps a half-breem later a quiet shuffling noise started up, suggesting that Starscream had, at last, started his own work at the bench opposite his larger friend.

Perhaps it was a coincidence that both of them reached for the beaker of liquid tutonium compound at precisely the same moment. Skyfire's hand, the larger, knocked Starscream's against the sealed container, which tipped and tilted and fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Watch it," growled Starscream absently as he went down to rescue the dropped apparatus, which had remarkably not shattered or spilt its contents over the ground, too absorbed to notice that Skyfire was ducking to the floor as well.

Both mechs froze when they reached for the dropped canister at exactly the same astrosecond for the second time and ended up clasping each other's hands. Their optics met, Skyfire's azure conveying apology for the accident, Starscream's scarlet narrowed in a snarl.

Somehow, the gaze held silently for a half-klik that dragged.

Their lips met.

Both pulled away as though burned, the canister of pale metallic fluid all but forgotten between them. Skyfire coughed in chilly politeness and would not look Starscream in the face, whereas the tetrajet spat into his hand and snarled.

"What the _frag_ was that for!?"

"Excuse me," responded the shuttle with an icy tranquil tone that well disguised the racing pulsations of his suddenly-fearful spark – even if their friendship soured, they would _have_ to work the reactors together, and with Starscream's ability to hold a grudge... but, not knowing where his protest would lead, he spoke with a cold calmness he did not feel, "but I seem to remember that _yo__u_ advanced on _me_."

Surprisingly, no answer. Skyfire looked back. So did Starscream.

"... Am I just an idiot?" asked the shuttle after a long, potent pause, a slight frown marring his face. The heavy, dragging silence was choking, like bad energon trickling into his converters, slowly stealing his ability to cycle ventilation...

Starscream looked away swiftly with a narrow-eyed scarlet glare, quiet and, for once, not leaping at the chance to belittle and insult and humiliate, his expression hovering somewhere between a grimace and a small smile; it was the answer the white researcher had hoped for but not expected. "Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Of course you are."

"Perhaps we both are idiots," Skyfire taunted gently, and the jet turned back with an impish smirk playing over his dark mouth. It did not flicker.

"Shut up," he said plainly, "and kiss me again."

Before acquiescing, as he tilted his head in, Skyfire somehow found the time to, through the swamp of relief that coursed through his fuselage, grumble in good humour, "... _you _kissed _me_..."

He'd captured those wicked dark lips with his white before Starscream could give any retort, for once managing to silence the verbose seeker, for once causing screeched, high-pitched words to die in his throat, to peter out in his vocaliser.

... It was hardly life-changing, there were no sparks, no epiphany, no mind-blowing, circuit-frying intensity... there was just one point of contact, and the tentative, not-quite-there touch of Skyfire's fingers upon Starscream's red shoulder, which they hovered above uncertainly, the shuttle unsure whether to bring the jet closer in.

There was no need. It took only a moment for Starscream, deceptively strong for his comparatively small size and slight stature, to steal control, push Skyfire back onto the floor, press his bulk and his weight over and into his larger partner.

Skyfire snapped back to his senses, almost panicked as the realisation of where he was and what he was doing struck him with as much force as a heavy freight liner, pushed Starscream away and sat up to brush imaginary dust from his fuselage.

"What -", grouched the jet as he fell back to sit at ease upon the ground, showing offence on his expressive, thin face, a pout of anger and rising anger, but Skyfire laid a large hand on his helm to calm him, a faint, embarrassed smile lingering.

"Not here," he explained, gentle.

Starscream's red optics narrowed but the rising anger quelled, making way for the returning good humour and fond jibes. "You're such a prude."

"Perhaps. But there are things that should be kept private, don't you agree?"

"Sure," answered the jet in a tone that showed he clearly did not.

Skyfire almost chuckled. It was somehow strangely fitting that Starscream, attention-seeking and egotistical, should harbour exhibitionist fantasies – but the shuttle himself was of no such mindset.

"Your room?" He asked, leaving no room for discussion or compromise, "or mine?"

"Mine is closer," answered Starscream huskily, for once accepting defeat in the realisation that there was no way he could persuade Skyfire to do anything while there was the risk of their being walked in upon.

"I doubt I will fit on your berth."

"Yours then," growled the jet, apathy dripping at the truth his partner had calmly pointed out. "I don't care, whatever, let's at least do _something_ instead of just sitting here. So make a decision and hurry it the frag up, my aft is going numb."

O

Skyfire's room was plain and unwelcoming. The shuttle had not made any real effort to move in. Very little marked it out as lived-in; the berth, almost twice the size of Starscream's, hardly seemed used, the walls and work-surfaces shone immaculate, and the only sign of occupation was the small, neat pile of alphabetically organised datapads, filed away under subtitles of in runic Cybertronian shorthand, in a corner away from the door.

However, Starscream barely noticed any of this, did not even comment on it as he all but dragged his larger friend into the room with intent, though not even headed towards the berth. Ignoring Skyfire's slight resistance, his occasional soft chuckles, the jet strode with focus and only turned when the shuttle behind him paused to close the door behind them.

"So what now?" asked Skyfire, taking a seat on his berth and resting his arms on one knee. Starscream turned to him with a sneer; it looked for all the world as though he were about to burst out into sarcastic, mocking laughter.

"You're slow," he observed, "what do you _think_ I want?"

Skyfire tilted his head, drawing a pattern on his own knee with his index finger. "Yes, yes, I know, but are we compatible?"

"Compatible?" Starscream stared at the white-bodied researcher suspiciously, the tilt of his head betraying his volatile temper barely held in check. "What do you mean by _that_?"

"Well," started Skyfire, speaking with caution around a subject that was clearly causing him some embarrassment to bring up. "... I am well aware that I am larger than average, but still... You are too small."

The look of blank disbelief on Starscream's face was truly astounding. For once, it seemed, the jet was at a loss for words. Then slight amusement, then defensive anger, as though he felt he was being mocked. "What, so you think I can't handle you just because you're a fragging _freak_?"

"You have such a way with words," said Skyfire plainly, not at all offended his deca-cycles of experience with the volatile, rude warrior-mech numbing any sensitivities he might have had. "... all right, let's try it. But... do not hate me if we cannot do this."

Flourishing one hand, the shuttle invited Starscream onto his berth, but, rather than sliding on to the metal recharge plate, Starscream instead stared at him, the tugs of an amused and somehow still sultry smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

"I top. You get on the berth. I get on you."

"Oh? Domination issues?" But Skyfire acquiesced with no complaint, hauling his large chassis onto the recharge plate, reclining back and watching his smaller partner.

"Hardly," sneered the tetrajet, "You'd crush me if you lay on me," was offered by way of explanation, the small blade-edged wings upon his shoulders twitching and flexing in anticipation as he crawled onto Skyfire's chest, both ultramarine palms against the translucent cobalt of the shuttle's cockpit canopy. He was surprisingly light for all his bulk, his long, slender limbs of cybertutonium that was sturdy but not dense, and a little more hollow than the standard for aerial prowess.

Skyfire nodded, leaning back on his elbows a little further, staring calmly into Starscream's smouldering scarlet optics. Starscream stared back. Both were wanting, near-frantic with mutual growing lust, uncaring of consequences now, but ultimately, both were still inexperienced.

"You have done this before?" It was the shuttle who asked the question that hovered about both their vocalisers.

"No. You?"

"No."

A little pause. "... Mmm? So what would you like me to do?"

"Dumb glitch," Starscream smirked gently and licked his glossa over his lips. "I want you to touch me."

Skyfire tilted his head in exasperation, "I had already ascertained _that_ much, but touch you _where_? I cannot say I am familiar with the structural details of military fliers, I would not know where upon you is sensitive."

"My wings," came the reply, thoughtful and hoarse. "the caudal rather than the dorsal... and the ailerons upon my shoulders. The outer strakes more so than the inner, but apart from that, nothing especially."

A nod, and then, after a brief moment of thought, Skyfire reached a hand to one of the tiny tapering wings and started to gently manipulate the aileron, tweaking this way and that. Starscream's optics flickered off, an unreadable expression on his face, and then he hissed.

"Not so _hard_...!"

"Sorry," apologised the large shuttle, who had been trying to keep his touch gentle. Collecting himself, he reached forward again to the jet over him, another tweak – more careful and measured this time. But it was still no use; Starscream snarled and snatched his shoulder away even at the caress that was, to Skyfire, exaggeratedly gentle.

"What are you trying to do," he growled defensively, his dark face only a motherboard's breadth from Skyfire's white, their noses almost touching, "rip it off? Not so _rough_!"

"Sorry," mumbled Skyfire again, optics narrowing, awkward at the second rebuttal, unsure of whether he could really do this. "Why do you not show me how, then?"

A smirk of self-assured superiority crossed Starscream's dark visage and he splayed his fingers over Skyfire's chest, pressing himself down, arching his back and expelling hot air from his vents, the very picture of sensuality – but it did not have the effect that was both expected and desired. Skyfire did not immediately surrender to insensibility, give himself over to Starscream, he did not whisper to the seeker how brilliant he was.

"A little firmer?" Asked the shuttle unromantically. "I cannot really feel anything."

Starscream snarled in a mixture of embarrassment and self-defence and firmed his touches, but there was still no response from Skyfire. Instead, the shuttle smiled a faltering, apologetic expression, tilted his head to the side and then, when his optics flickered off, he shook his head.

"It is not working. You are not firm enough..."

"You're too big!" Growled Starscream accusingly, sitting up astride Skyfire's wait and staring down as though his partner was somehow at fault for his size.

Skyfire's optics flickered on, a sound from his systems caught somewhere between an offended but defensive growl and a saddened sigh. "No, _you_ are too small."

Silence as the two matched stares, scarlet optics burning and azure matching the glare. The white shuttle broke the gaze first, flickering his sight down to Starscream's cockpit and watching nothing.

"As I thought..." he murmured quietly, unable to keep disappointment from his voice. "We are not compatible after all... the size difference is too great."

"Pff," Starscream growled and shrugged, but even he could not deny that their attempts had ended only in failure. A mixture of expressions flickered over his faceplates and then he glared at his partner, "what sort of mech do you think I am, anyway? You think I'm starved for sensory overload? You think I will spurn you if you cannot satisfy me with your touch? How little you must think of me."

With a 'hmph' of self-righteous indignation, the seeker turned his head away, pouting sulkily in ill grace.

Carefully and without words, Skyfire raised a white hand and ran his fingers over one of the seams of Starscream's dark cheek, tilting his head back, and the warrior-turned-scientist stared him in the optic.

Then, they kissed again, and this time it was a kiss without passion or ulterior ambition, but rather a slow and caring and understanding liplock._ We can still be like this without the sex_, it said without words, _it is neither awkward nor embarrassing if we just accept it_...

Starscream withdrew his head and then pressed himself closer, rearranging Skyfire's arms around him so the shuttle was holding him close.

"I am staying here for this side of the solar cycle," he announced in a voice that, while quiet and slow, left no room for argument - whether or not Skyfire wanted his quarters and his berth invaded by the jet. No verbal response came, but instead the large white researcher smiled in indulgence and his arms relaxed about the smaller flier's chassis, intimate despite their inability to sparkmerge.

Shifting a little so that Starscream was laying next to him rather than over him, Skyfire heaved a sigh that was half in satisfaction and half in disappointment that he could not offer the jet any physical relief, that the jet could not offer _him_ any physical relief, that all they could be to each other was good company.

But maybe... that was all they needed to be.


End file.
